Antics
of the Reduced Shakespeare Company Antics
of the Reduced Shakespeare Company
Comedy
Dr. Richard Regan
Spring 2009
Office hours: Mon 1-3, Thurs 1-3, and by appointment.
Texts: Editions of the works below are in the campus bookstore.
Three major papers, 7-10 pp. These may be rewritten after a conference. Late papers may be reduced in grade.
Reaction papers, 3-4 pp. Generally one a week, based on classroom discussion and video, and closely related to comic theory (handouts). These will be graded √+, √, √- and can raise or lower your average. Late papers may be reduced in grade.
Attendance: each cut lowers your average 1 point. Documented excuses only (Deans' office, Health Service, faculty advisor). Excessive absences may result in a failing grade.
Students with documented learning disabilities, please see me. Alternative methods of testing and evaluation are available.
Schedule (* indicates film/tape also)
January 14 - Theories
of humor; working definition of comedy
Parody and Satire.
A philosopher
looks at humor.
Humor journals.
Laughter.
January 21 - Origins
of comedy.
A Funny Thing Happened
on the Way to the Forum*
Roman
Comedy and farce.
Literary
Romance
Vaudeville and Burlesque
Read: "Introduction" (Corrigan),
Bergson, Freud, Bentley.
History, Lyrics and Sound Files
January 28 - SNOW DAY
February 4 - Candide (reading quiz)
Types of comedy. Comic characters.
Origins of Camp.
Read: Frye, Sontag.
DEVELOP PAPER TOPIC
A Guide to Leonard Bernstein's Candide
PBS "Candide" in Concert (January 2005)
February 11 - The
Graduate*
Romantic (Shakespearian)
Comedy.
Read: Sypher
Links for Apollonian-Dionysian symbolism
Answers.com
Online Discussion Outline
Man's Extremity
And the Modern Artist (Find menu for "dionysian")
H. L.
Mencken's The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche (parody)
Cult, Rite, and the Tragic:
Appropriating Nietzsche's Dionysian
Apollo and Dionysus--some views
on Tragedy
Apollo versus Dionysus
Introduction:
Dionysian Shaw (access from Project Muse database at DiMenna-Nyselius Library)
February 18
- The Miser*
Moliere and
the comedy of the mechanical.
Humours
(4 temperaments)
Read: Lanson, Potts.
PAPER DUE
February 25 -
Man and Superman (reading quiz)
On Approval.*
Comedy of Manners.
Comic Closure.
Read: Lehman, Park.
Bernard Shaw: A Brief Biography
G.B.S.: The Life of George Bernard Shaw
SPRING
BREAK
March 11 - Chocolat.*
Comic fable and allegory.
Read: Santayana (Mardi Gras March 3)
Journal Of Religion and Film review
March 18 -
Absurdist and surrealist
Screwball comedy.
Monty
Python and the Marx
Brothers.
Read: Kerr, Watts, Grotjahn.
PAPER TOPIC.
Vintage Python Interview (1975)
for Screwball Comedy:
from the Modern Times film site
(includes audio files and film stills)
March 25 -
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead*
Read: Duprey.
Lecture on Stoppard (and Beckett)
April 1 - Brave New World
(reading quiz)
Utopia and dystopia.
Dr. Strangelove, Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb*
Read: Corrigan.
PAPER DUE
What Happened to Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley: Brave New World
April 8 - Catch-22
(reading quiz. Concentrate on Chapters 4,5,17,18,22,23,24,30,32,39,40,41,42)
Waiting for Godot.
Black comedy.
Grotesque.
(Click on "The Grotesque," then 3 "Towards a Definition"
link for Heller.)
Read: Cohn
"Deadly Unconscious Logics in Joseph Heller's Catch-22"
Samuel Beckett Resources and Links
"BECKETT'S GODOT: 'A bundle of broken mirrors'"
April 15 - Fargo*
Read: Suzanne Langer, "Feeling
and Form."
April 22 - Sense and Sensibility*
April 29 - FINAL PAPER DUE (for rewrite)
May 5 - Final Due Date
