The Comedy Studies Reader

Published by University of Texas Press 2018

The Comedy Studies Reader

Edited by: Nick Marx and Matt Sienkiewicz

https://doi.org/10.7560/315996

Overview
Contents

About this book

From classical Hollywood film comedies to sitcoms, recent political satire, and the developing world of online comedy culture, comedy has been a mainstay of the American media landscape for decades. Recognizing that scholars and students need an authoritative collection of comedy studies that gathers both foundational and cutting-edge work, Nick Marx and Matt Sienkiewicz have assembled The Comedy Studies Reader. This anthology brings together classic articles, more recent works, and original essays that consider a variety of themes and approaches for studying comedic media—the carnivalesque, comedy mechanics and absurdity, psychoanalysis, irony, genre, race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality, and nation and globalization. The authors range from iconic theorists, such as Mikhail Bakhtin, Sigmund Freud, and Linda Hutcheon, to the leading senior and emerging scholars of today. As a whole, the volume traces two parallel trends in the evolution of the field—first, comedy’s development into myriad subgenres, formats, and discourses, a tendency that has led many popular commentators to characterize the present as a “comedy zeitgeist”; and second, comedy studies’ new focus on the ways in which comedy increasingly circulates in “serious” discursive realms, including politics, economics, race, gender, and cultural power.

Author / Editor information

Nick Marx is an assistant professor of media studies at Colorado State University.

Matt Sienkiewicz is an associate professor of communication and international studies at Boston College.

Reviews

"Nick Marx and Matt Sienkiewicz showcase an incredible collection of essays from writers and academics that analyze comedy through a variety of political and social lenses. In doing so, they make it clear that comedy is art and should be treated as such. Comedy not only reflects society but shapes it. This is essential reading."

— Hari Kondabolu, writer, comedian, and executive producer of The Problem with Apu

"There has never been a good collection that included the pieces I wanted to assign ever since I started teaching humor and satire fifteen years ago. But now there is. This book provides a very accessible, one-stop shop of foundational and original work for teachers and students of comedy."

— Viveca S. Greene, Hampshire College, coeditor of A Decade of Dark Humor: How Comedy, Irony, and Satire Shaped Post-9/11 America

"This book is one of a kind, hugely valuable, with highly accessible yet provocative essays. It should be highly sought after in media studies programs, helping students and scholars find a foundation in comedy concepts before taking on longer studies."

— Derek Kompare, Southern Methodist University, coeditor of Making Media Work: Cultures of Management in the Entertainment Industries

"An expertly conceived collection that proves both familiar and new...The Comedy Studies Reader expertly follows through on its promise for scholars—providing a clear invitation to play, to revisit old streets and explore new territories under the sheltering sky of comedy studies."

— Studies in American Humor

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Volume Introduction: Comedy as Theory, Industry, and Academic Discipline Nick Marx and Matt Sienkiewicz Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. The Carnivalesque Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	17
2. Comedy Mechanics & Absurdity Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	45
3. Psychoanalyzing Comedy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	71
4. Irony Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	102
5. Genre Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	134
6. Race & Ethnicity Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	170
7. Gender & Sexuality Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	208
8. Nation & Globalization Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	238
Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	282
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	287

Language: English
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 313

eBook

Published: August 1, 2018
ISBN: 9781477316016