Book contents
- American Literature in Transition, 1770–1828
- Nineteenth-Century American Literature In Transition
- American Literature in Transition, 1770–1828
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Series Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Chapter 1 Introduction
- Part I Form and Genre
- Chapter 2 The Law of Form and the Form of the Law
- Chapter 3 The Statesman’s Address
- Chapter 4 Vocabularies and Other Indigenous-Language Texts
- Chapter 5 The Genteel Novel in the Early United States
- Chapter 6 The State of Our Union
- Chapter 7 “To assume her Language as my own”
- Chapter 8 “Ambiguities and Little Secrets”
- Part II Networks
- Part III Methods for Living
- Index
Chapter 6 - The State of Our Union
Comedy in the Post-Revolutionary US Theater
from Part I - Form and Genre
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 June 2022
- American Literature in Transition, 1770–1828
- Nineteenth-Century American Literature In Transition
- American Literature in Transition, 1770–1828
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Series Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Chapter 1 Introduction
- Part I Form and Genre
- Chapter 2 The Law of Form and the Form of the Law
- Chapter 3 The Statesman’s Address
- Chapter 4 Vocabularies and Other Indigenous-Language Texts
- Chapter 5 The Genteel Novel in the Early United States
- Chapter 6 The State of Our Union
- Chapter 7 “To assume her Language as my own”
- Chapter 8 “Ambiguities and Little Secrets”
- Part II Networks
- Part III Methods for Living
- Index
Summary
Comedies rely on the union of opposites – whether those opposites might be literally characters of two different races or oppositional ideas about the fate of the young nation. Comedy often rests on juxtapositions in which incongruity creates a sense of the absurd. However, with the distance of time, the humor becomes harder to read. It may be because the comedy now appears offensive to contemporary audiences in the ways it approaches material related to identity – whether it be race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or religion. This chapter explores a combination of American-authored comedies and popular British works that continued to circulate in the American repertoire throughout the early national period. It also touches on some forms of comedy – particularly circus and pantomime performance – that audiences imagined as more “democratic” and accessible.
- Type
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- Information
- American Literature in Transition, 1770–1828 , pp. 93 - 111Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022