Topics in Combined Studies (385-0-21)
Topic
Romantic Comedies Old & New
Instructors
Tristram Nash Wolff
Meeting Info
Kresge Centennial Hall 4-410: Tues, Thurs 11:00AM - 12:20PM
Overview of class
This course maps the literary and cinematic DNA of the contemporary "rom com," from William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, and the screwball comedies of 1930s Classical Hollywood to the 1990s blockbusters and the Netflix revolution. Along the way we may ask: What do the comedic conventions of Western classical drama, the medieval genre of "romance," or the political aesthetics of Romanticism have to do with the romantic comedy as it exists today? The anarchic space of comedy is usually understood to grant the genre a subversive potential using absurdism or satire to reimagine power dynamics or to question social norms governing gender, sexuality, race, and family. One question we will ask throughout is: Does the romantic comedy threaten to tame that subversive potential? Or does it promise to release its chaotic energies in ever renewed ways? Students will regularly be asked to watch two movies in a single week. Apart from writing several papers for the course, students will also present on an episode, scene, or clip from a recent TV show that helps us understood the genre and its history.
Class Materials (Required)
Texts will be available at Bookends and Beginnings.
William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew or Much Ado About Nothing;
Pierre-Augustin de Beaumarchais, The Marriage of Figaro;
Jane Austen, Emma.
Films for this course drawn from this list (available on Canvas): His Girl Friday, The Lady Eve, Parting Glances, Poetic Justice, The Wedding Banquet, When Harry Met Sally, Pretty Woman, Clueless, Out of Sight, Saving Face, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Bridget Jones's Diary, Ten Things I Hate About You, Deliver Us From Eva, Obvious Child, Appropriate Behavior
Class Attributes
Literature & Fine Arts Distro Area
SDG Reduced Inequality
SDG Peace & Justice