‘Miserable’ humour or ‘humorous’ misery in Frank McCourt’s “Tis”

Abstract

Frank McCourt’s three-volume memoir is both a heartbreaking and exhilarating tale of childhood, adolescence and maturity. While describing a horrifying childhood in Limerick, Ireland, a confusing, frustrating teenage and early adulthood in New-York, and a challenging, often disappointing teacher’s career, the Irish-American writer succeeds in infusing his prose with an exquisite sense of humour, and self-irony. This article aims at pointing out humorous situations and language in McCourt’s novel “‘Tis”, and demonstrating the novelist’s mastery in depicting misery, frustration, despair, even death with serenity, and very often benevolent irony and charm.