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  • Cited by 22
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
September 2014
Print publication year:
2009
Online ISBN:
9780511816857

Book description

'Laughter', says Eric Weitz, 'may be considered one of the most extravagant physical effects one person can have on another without touching them'. But how do we identify something which is meant to be comic, what defines something as 'comedy', and what does this mean for the way we enter the world of a comic text? Addressing these issues, and many more, this is a 'how to' guide to reading comedy from the pages of a dramatic text, with relevance to anything from novels and newspaper columns to billboards and emails. The book enables you to enhance your grasp of the comic through familiarity with characteristic structures and patterns, referring to comedy in literature, film and television throughout. Perfect for drama and literature students, this Introduction explores a genre which affects the everyday lives of us all, and will therefore also capture the interest of anyone who loves to laugh.

Awards

Winner of the Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2009

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Contents

Further reading
List of texts
Bibliography
Comedy in general or overview:
Howarth, W. D., (ed.), Comic Drama: The European Heritage (London: Methuen, 1978). The ‘Introduction’ offers an engaging survey of comic theory through the ages, and contains the editor's own attempt at formally distinguishing the genre.
Erich, Segal, The Death of Comedy (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2001)
Andrew, Stott, Comedy (London: Routledge, 2005)
Corrigan, Robert (ed.), Comedy: Meaning and Form (Scranton: Chandler, 1965)
Palmer, D.J. (ed.), Comedy: Developments in Criticism (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1984)
Greek and Roman comedy:
Richard, C. Beacham, The Roman Theatre and its Audience (London: Routledge, 1995)
Hunter, R. L., The New Comedy of Greece and Rome (Cambridge University Press, 1989)
Douglas, MacDowell, Aristophanes and Athens (Oxford University Press, 1995)
Kenneth, McLeish, The Theatre of Aristophanes (London: Thames & Hudson, 1980)
Alan, H. Sommerstein, Greek Drama and Dramatists (London: Routledge, 2002)
Walton, J. Michael and Peter, D. Arnott, Menander and the Making of Comedy (Westport: Greenwood, 1996)
David, Wiles, Greek Theatre Performance: An Introduction (Cambridge University Presss, 2000)
Humour and laughter:
Bergson, Henri, ‘Laughter’ in Sypher, W. (ed.), Comedy (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1980), pp. 59–180 remains an original point of reference for humour theory.
Simon, Critchley, On Humour (London: Routledge, 2002), part of the Thinking in Action series, is a very readable treatment of humour across a range of disciplines.
Fry, Jr. William F., Sweet Madness: A Study of Humor (Palo Alto: Pacific, 1968), good especially for its discussion of the relationship between play and humour.
John, Morreall, The Philosophy of Laughter and Humour (Albany: SUNY, 1987) supplies an historical collection of philosophers' views on humour and laughter.
Jerry, Palmer, Taking Humour Seriously (London: Routledge, 1984) provides a comprehensive treatment of humour and society.
Robert, R. Provine, Laughter: A Scientific Investigation (New York: Penguin, 2001), a scientific but entirely readable approach.
Comedy in performance:
Richard, Andrews, Scripts and Scenarios: The performance of Comedy in Renaissance Italy (Cambridge University Press, 1993)
Styan, J. L., Restoration Comedy in Performance (Cambridge University Press, 1986)
Wiles, David, Shakespeare's Clown: Actor and Text in the Elizabethan Playhouse (Cambridge University Press, 1987)
Commedia dell' arte:
Antonio, Fava, The Comic Mask in the Commedia dell'Arte (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 2007)
Barry, Grantham, Playing Commedia (Portsmouth: Heinemann, 2000)
John, Rudlin, Commedia dell'Arte: An Actor's Handbook (London: Routledge, 1994)
Other books of interest:
Albert, Bermel, Comic Agony: Mixed Impressions in the Modern Theatre (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1993)
Fortier, Mark, Theory/Theatre: An Introduction, new edn (London: Routledge, 2002). As noted in Chapter 6, this book offers extremely accessible introductions to the areas of gender studies, queer theory, Marxist theory, postcolonialism and more.
Alexander, Leggatt, English Stage Comedy 1490–1990 (London: Routledge, 1998)
Styan, J. L., The Dark Comedy: The Development of Modern Comic Tragedy, new edn (Cambridge University Press, 1968)
Aidoo, Ama Ata, The Dilemma of a Ghost in The Dilemma of a Ghost and Anowa (Harlow: Longman, 1985), pp. 1–53
Albee, Edward, The Goat or Who is Sylvia? (London: Methuen, 2004)
,Anonymous, Everyman in Three Late Medieval Morality Plays (London: A & C Black, 1993), pp. 59–105
Apollinaire, Guillaume, The Mammaries of Tiresias, trans. by Slater, Maya in Three Pre-Surrealist Plays (Oxford University Press, 1997), pp. 151–207
Aristophanes, , Acharnians, trans. by McLeish, Kenneth in Aristophanes Plays: One (London: Methuen, 1993), pp. 1–60
Aristophanes, , Frogs, trans by Kenneth McLeish in Six Greek Comedies (London: Methuen, 2002), pp. 89–167
Aristophanes, Lysistrata, trans. by McLeish, Kenneth in Aristophanes Plays: One (London: Methuen, 1993), pp. 193–256
Aristophanes, The Wasps, trans. by Barrett, David in Aristophanes: The Wasps, The Poet and the Women, The Frogs (London: Penguin, 1964), pp. 33–94
Austen, Jane, Pride and Prejudice (New York: W. W. Norton, 2001)
Ayckbourn, Alan, Absurd Person Singular in Three Plays (New York: Grove, 1975), pp. 11–93
Barnes, Peter, The Ruling Class in Plays: One (London: Methuen, 1994), pp. 1–119
Beckett, Samuel, Happy Days in The Complete Dramatic Works (London: Faber and Faber, 1990), pp. 135–68
Beckett, Samuel, Waiting for Godot in The Complete Dramatic Works (London: Faber and Faber, 1990), pp. 7–88
Behn, Aphra, The Rover in The Rover and Other Plays (Oxford University Press, 1995), 1–88
Brecht, Bertolt, Mother Courage and her Children, trans. by Willett, John in Plays: Two (London: Methuen, 1987), pp. 95–182
Carr, Marina, By the Bog of Cats …in Marina Carr: Plays (London: Faber and Faber, 1999), pp. 257–341
Chekhov, Anton, The Cherry Orchard, trans. by Frayn, Michael in Chekhov: Plays (London: Methuen, 1993), pp. 283–353
Churchill, Caryl, Cloud Nine in Plays: One (London: Methuen, 1985), pp. 243–320
Churchill, Caryl, Top Girls in Plays: Two (London: Methuen, 1990)
Congreve, William, The Way of the World in Four English Comedies (London: Penguin, 1985), pp. 131–231
Elton, Ben, Popcorn in Plays: 1 (London: Methuen, 1998), pp. 173–255
Erdman, Nikolai, The Suicide (New York: Broadway Play Publishing, 2000)
Feydeau, Georges and Desvallières, Maurice, A Little Hotel on the Side, trans. by Mortimer, John (London: Samuel French, 1984)
Griffiths, Trevor, Comedians (London: Faber and Faber, 1979)
Guare, John, The House of Blue Leaves (London: Methuen, 1993)
Ionesco, Eugène, The Bald Soprano trans. by Allen, Donald M. in The Bald Soprano and Other Plays (New York: Grove, 1958), pp. 7–42
Ionesco, Eugène, Rhinoceros, trans. by Prouse, Derek in Rhinoceros, The Chairs, The Lesson (London: Penguin, 1962), pp. 9–124
Ives, David, Speed-the-Play in All in the Timing: Fourteen Plays (New York: Vintage, 1995), pp. 199–212
Jarry, Alfred, Ubu the King, trans. by Slater, Maya in Three Pre-Surrealist Plays (Oxford University Press, 1997), pp. 49–147
Johnson, Terry, Hysteria in Plays: 2 (London: Methuen, 2003), pp. 89–190
Jonson, Ben, Volpone (London: Ernest Benn, 1968)
Kaufman, George S. and Moss, Hart, Once in a Lifetime in Six Plays by Kaufman and Hart (New York: Random House, 1942), pp. 1–115
Kushner, Tony, Angels in America, Part One: Millennium Approaches (New York: Theatre Communications Group, 1993)
Laurents, Arthur, West Side Story, music by Leonard Bernstein and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim in Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story (New York: Dell, 1965), pp. 131–224
McDonagh, Martin, The Lonesome West in The Beauty Queen of Leenane and Other Plays (New York: Vintage, 1998), pp. 167–259.
Mamet, David, Glengarry Glen Ross in Plays: 3 (London: Methuen, 1996), pp. 1–66
Mamet, David, Speed-the-Plow in Plays: 3 (London: Methuen, 1996), pp. 119–84
Macdonald, Ann-Marie, Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) (New York: Grove, 1990)
Menander, , The Malcontent, trans. by Walton, J. Michael in Aristophanes and Menander: New Comedy (London: Methuen, 1994)
Milligan, Spike, ‘The great man’ in The Essential Spike Milligan (London: Fourth Estate, 2003), pp. 67–8
Molière, , Don Juan, trans. by Graveley, George and Maclean, Ian in Don Juan and Other Plays (Oxford University press, 1989), pp. 31–91
Molière, , Scapin the Schemer, trans. by George Graveley and Ian Maclean in Don Juan and Other Plays (Oxford University Press, 1989), pp. 337–90
Orton, Joe, What the Butler Saw in The Complete Plays (London: Methuen, 1997), pp. 361–448
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Pinter, Harold, The Homecoming (New York: Grove, 1978)
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Plautus, , The Pot of Gold, trans. by Watling, E.F. in The Pot of Gold and Other Plays (London: Penguin, 1965), pp. 7–49
Shakespeare, William, As You Like It (London: Arden Shakespeare, 2006)
Shakespeare, William, The Comedy of Errors (London: Routledge, 1994)
Shakespeare, William, Measure for Measure (London: Methuen, 1979)
Shakespeare, William, Much Ado About Nothing (New York: New American Library, 1964)
Shakespeare, William, Twelfth Night or What You Will (New York: New American Library, 1965)
Shakespeare, William, The Two Gentlemen of Verona (London: Methuen, 1986)
Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, The School for Scandal (London: A & C Black, 1995)
Simon, Neil, Chapter Two (New York: Samuel French, 1979)
Sophocles, , Antigone, trans. by Taylor, Don (London: Methuen, 1998), pp. 129–88
Stoppard, Tom, On the Razzle (London: Faber and Faber, 1982)
Synge, J. M., The Playboy of the Western World in J. M. Synge: The Complete Plays (London: Methuen, 1995), pp. 173–229
Terence, , The Eunuch, trans. by McLeish, Kenneth in Four Roman Comedies (London: Methuen, 2003), pp. 139–216
Terence, , The Girl From Andros, trans. by Radice, Betty in The Comedies (London: Penguin, 1976), pp. 30–91
Voltaire, , Candide, trans. by Adams, Robert M. (New York: W. W. Norton, 1991)
Walcott, Derek, Pantomime in Postcolonial Plays: An Anthology (London: Routledge, 2001), pp. 132–52
Wilde, Oscar, An Ideal Husband in The Importance of Being Earnest and other Plays (London: Penguin, 1986), pp. 147–244
Wilde, Oscar, The Importance of Being Earnest in The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays (London: Penguin, 1986), pp. 247–313
Wolfe, George C., The Colored Museum (London: Methuen, 1987)
Wycherley, William, The Country Wife (London: A & C Black, 1993)
Altman, Rick, Film/Genre (London: BFI, 1999)
Andrews, Richard, ‘Scripted theatre and the commedia dell'arte’ in Mulryne, J. R. and Shewing, M. (eds.), Theatre of the English and Italian Renaissance (London: Macmillan, 1991), pp. 21–54
Andrews, Richard, Scripts and Scenarios: The Performance of Comedy in Renaissance Italy (Cambridge University Press, 1993)
Apte, Mahadev L., Humor and Laughter: An Anthropological Approach (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1985)
Apter, Michael J., The Experience of Motivation: The Theory of Psychological Reversals (London: Academic, 1982)
Aristotle, , Poetics, trans. by Malcolm Heath (London: Penguin, 1996)
Artaud, Antonin, The Theater and its Double, trans. by Richards, Mary Caroline (New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1958)
Bakhtin, Mikhail, Rabelais and his World, trans. by Hélène Iswolsky (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1984)
Bakhtin, Mikhail and Medvedev, P. N., ‘Genres as ideological forms’, trans. by Wehrle, A. J. in Morris, P. (ed.), in The Bakhtin Reader (London: Edward Arnold, 1994), pp. 174–82
Barthes, Roland, Image-Music-Text, trans by Stephen, Heath (London: Fontana, 1977)
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Breton, André, ‘Lightning rod’ in Anthology of Black Humor, trans. by Mark, Polizzotti (San Francisco: City Lights, 1997), pp. xiii–xix
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