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Lee, Young Cheol. “Humor in African American Literature.” Studies in English Language & literature. 38.4 (2012): 127-151. This essay aims to contextually study humor in the African American literature in terms of their targets and forms. Humor, sometimes including parody, burlesque, tragicomedy, and forms more specific to African American culture, such as signifying and Yo-mama, has often been used as the most essential expressive forms in the African American literature. It is not threatening. Therefore, during slavery and the subsequent centuries of White segregation policy, it has contributed to production of a twofold effect, which seemingly leads Whites to believe in the inferiority of blacks and substantially helps African American writers to mask their aggression on Whites’ racial superiority and violence. African American writers have needed it as a defensive weapon to protect themselves from the insidiousness and violence of racism, and an offensive weapon to fight against them. It has also functioned as ways of affirming their humanity in the face of violent denial. (Jeonju University)