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Home > Language, Linguistics & Creative Writing > Linguistics > Laughing Matters: Paradox of Comedy
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Laughing Matters: Paradox of Comedy

Laughing Matters: Paradox of Comedy


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About the Book

This book explores the paradoxes of theatrical comedy which emerge both in comic theater and in efforts to discern its meaning. Scott Cutler Shershow views comedy not only as the classical "mirror of nature," but also as a tradition of performance whose familiar conventions reflect our own opposing visions of human life: criticism or acceptance of the world, cynicism or optimism, derision or forgiveness. The very act of evaluating comedy also reveals its paradoxical nature, as critics become caught up in what Shershow calls comedy's "constantly shifting perspective." In examining the basic building blocks of comic nature--plot and character--Shershow discovers a pattern of critical contradiction that ironically defines the paradox of comedy itself. He then looks at classical comic plays by Plautus, Machiavelli, and Middleton, focusing on the ironic tensions with the themes of money and lust. Then, seeking a still deeper truth within the nature of performance itself, Shershow analyzes such plays as Euripides' Helen, Beckett's Endgame, Mayakovsky's Mystery Bouffe, and Shaw's Man and Superman. Here he finds a transcendence of irony, as optimism and reconciliation emerge as genuine alternatives to ironic pretense.

About the Author :
Scott Cutler Shershow studied literature at New College, Oxford, and Harvard University. He is an editor at Addison-Wesley Publishing Company.

Review :
"Shershow has written that rare thing--a good, readable, and freshly-visioned book on the most illusive of all genres, comedy. The study is packed with sensitive insights into comic theory and sharply pointed critical analysis of a wide variety of plays from Aristophanes to Beckett."--G. Blakemore Evans, Cabot Professor of English Literature, Emeritus, Harvard University "Shershow shows how comic playwrights have always been marginal and have performed a kind of balancing act, exposing society's avarice and hypocrisy but still celebrating the order that supports their writing. And he does so by working carefully and gracefully with playwrights from Plautus to Shaw . . . he has an enormous range of learning, which he employs judiciously. He is very skillful in making particular plays come to life."--Richard Pearce, Wheaton College


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Product Details
  • ISBN-13: 9780870235092
  • Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press
  • Publisher Imprint: University of Massachusetts Press
  • Language: English
  • Returnable: N
  • Weight: 400 gr
  • ISBN-10: 0870235095
  • Publisher Date: 27 Mar 1986
  • Binding: Paperback
  • No of Pages: 176
  • Sub Title: Paradox of Comedy


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