Download or read book Raymond Carver's Short Fiction in the History of Black Humor written by Jingqiong Zhou and published by Peter Lang. This book was released on 2006 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This first book-length study on the black humor in Raymond Carver's work includes valuable interpretations of Carver's aesthetics as well as the psycho-social implications of his short fiction. The presence of an indeterminate «menace» in the oppressive situations of black humor in Carver - as compared to a European tradition of existentialist writing and his American predecessors including Twain, Heller, Barth and others - is mitigated through humor so it is not dominant. As a result, a subtle promise emerges in the characters' lives.