Studies in Fiction (313-0-23)

Topic

Laughing Til it Hurts: Humor, Subversion, and Crue

Instructors

Jennifer Comerford

Meeting Info

Parkes Hall 224: Tues, Thurs 9:30AM - 10:50AM

Overview of class

From good-humored raillery to witty wordplay, from cruel jokes to situational humor, dramatic irony to cultural satire, dark comedy to lighthearted banter, laughter is sometimes the best medicine—if you're the one laughing, that is. Humor and jokes have a way of playing with the line between trivial and crucial, of rendering matters insignificant and yet cutting to the very heart of things. It is a defense mechanism and a tool of social control and critique, a way of producing alignments and a way of upsetting class dynamics and power hierarchies, of bringing you in the know and of holding you at a distance. In this class, we will think about the many dimensions of humor and laughter. Why does humor die when we try to explain what's funny about it? What does it mean to be "in on the joke" or to claim, "I was only kidding?" How are we implicated in moments when we laugh at or with characters in novels? To what extent does the compulsion to laugh expose the cruelty we are capable of inflicting on others? As we will explore in this class, humor has the capacity to be subversive and yet to reinforce norms of sociability, and its after-effects are always double-edged. Ultimately, we will ask, what are the consequences that linger when the laughing has stopped.

Class Materials (Required)

Possible texts include Jonathan Swift, "A Modest Proposal" (1729), Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), and Percival Everett, Erasure (2001). Possible films include Get Out (2017) and Joker (2019).

Class Attributes

Advanced Expression
Literature and Arts Foundational Discipline
Literature & Fine Arts Distro Area