The Human Condition, Humor, & Adult Learning:

Lessons from Shakespeare for Adult and Higher Education and Human

Resource DevelopmentRey Ty & Awni Alkarzon

32nd Research-to-Practice Conference in Adult and Higher Education

Lindenwood UniversitySt. Charles, Missouri 63301

September 20-21, 2013

The Human Condition, Humor, & Adult Learning:

Lessons from Shakespeare for Adult and Higher Education and Human

Resource DevelopmentRey Ty & Awni Alkarzon

32nd Research-to-Practice Conference in Adult and Higher Education

Lindenwood UniversitySt. Charles, Missouri 63301

September 20-21, 2013

Introduction1. This paper addresses the problem of teaching adults

learners who are going through difficult times. 2. Lessons are learned from Shakespeare’s King Lear.

Humor is a powerful tool that can be used to highlight tragic reality.

3. Humor can be used as a tool to facilitate learning about complex issues and tragedies both inside and outside the classroom and the workplace.

Introduction1. Research Questions: What is the human

condition with which we are confronted? How is humor used as a tool for adult learners to deal with tragic situations?

2. Objectives: (a) to understand the tragic context within which current-day adult learners are situated; (b) to examine how humor can be used as a tool to deal with different facets of adult learning situations.

Method

•Literary criticism

Theory

• The existentialism of Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Dostoyevsky, Sartre, and Camus (Magee, 2001) provides the tools to critique the despair and champion the ability of the human spirit to find hope and bring about change.

Findings1. The human condition

a. Existentialism

b. Real-world problems

c. Shakespeare's Fool

2. Humor as a tool to talk about tragedy

Conclusion1.Learn from

Shakespeare.

2.Instructors can use humor as a tool to understand complex issues in tragic situations, which facilitates learning.

References1. Bakhtin. M. (1965). Rabelais and his world. Trans. Helene Iswolsky. Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of

Technology. 2. Berk, R, A. (2003). Professors are from Mars, students are from Snickers. Virginia: Stylus Publishing LLC.3. El-Shayal, D. (2001) A sea of troubles: Teaching Shakespeare to Egyptian students. In Sharon, A.B. and

Klein, H. Shakespeare and higher education- A Global perspective.4. Erasmus, D. (1986). Praise of folly. B. Radice (Trans.), Collected works of Erasmus, Vol. 27, A. H. T. Levi

(Ed.). Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 5. Ghose, I. (2008). Shakespeare and laughter: A cultural history. Manchester: Manchester University Press. 6. Goldberg, S.L. (1974). An essay on King Lear. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 7. Goldsmith, R.H. (1963). Wise fools in Shakespeare. Michigan: Michigan State University. 8. Magee, B. (2001). The story of philosophy. New York: DK Publishing. Inc. 9. Sartre, J. P. (1946). L’existentialisme est un humanisme. Paris: Éditions Nagel. 10. Shakespeare, W. (2005). King Lear. New York: Simon & Schuster. 11. Snyder, S. (1979). The comic matrix of Shakespeare’s tragedies. Princeton: Princeton University Press.12. Stiglitz, J. E. (2013). The price of inequality: How today’s divided society endangers our future. New York: W.

W. Norton & Company.13. Teague. F. (1970). Acting funny: comic theory and practice in Shakespeare’s plays. London and Toronto:

Associated University Presses.14. Welsford, W. (1935). The fool: His social and literary history. London: Faber.

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