Chick Lit

Abstract

Abstract In this paper, we look at characterisation in the popular fiction genre Chick Lit by analysing laughter-talk in conversational humour. This is the first systematic analysis of how a variety of humour phenomena are linguistically realised in the genre despite humour being as aspect recurrently referred to as intrinsic to the genre. We use a combination of methods, both corpus-based and qualitative in nature, to identify instances in which laughter occurs, which we (broadly) associate with the presence of humour. Thus, with the use of self-compiled corpora, we assess the nature of humorous mechanisms in the genre. We conclude by arguing that humorous encounters are genre-defining and essential for characterisation. Humour analysis allows us to argue that Chick Lit protagonists are prototypically presented as non-aggressive, non-threatening individuals, which also contributes to the depiction of down-to-earth characters readers expect in the genre.