Examines the ways in which television situation comedies exploit, yet contain, the feminist movement. (DD)

Presents a guide to the best humorous writing for children. Discusses the role of humorous books in coaxing reluctant readers to greater involvement in books. Analyzes types of humor and comedy while describing over 20 titles. (JB)

The impulse toward comedy in the poetry of Canadian author Margaret Atwood occurs as a by-product of an interaction between scripted text and performing reader. Reading, then, may be profitably viewed as a rehearsal for both. In the classroom, this stylistic approach to Atwood's poetry can be emphasized over thematic analysis. In her poetry,…

Confronted with the problems imposed by the stage presentation and interpretation of ancient Greek theatre to contemporary audiences, scholars have developed four major approaches to the presentation of Greek drama over the past 70 years. The first approach, referred to as modificationist or realist, claims that communicating ancient Greek drama…

This book is a critical biography of filmmaker Charlie Chaplin. Chaplin's life is traced in interpretative fashion from his birth, with special interest centering on the people and events in his life that molded and influenced his creative activities. Discursive criticism of Chaplin's films, identifying their child-like world view, for example, is…

This book surveys the history of comic films from the beginning of this genre to the present and analyzes the nature of comedy in general and the comic film specifically. The early film makers, especially Keaton, Sennett, and Chaplin, receive detailed attention as originators of the sub-genre of silent comic film. The special characteristics of…

In the year 2000, news and entertainment programs dedicated a great deal of comedic attention to the presidential election. Taking a Uses and Gratifications approach, this paper examines the role of comedy among the young electorate (undergraduate students at a Texas university). It concludes comedic programs, while popular, are among many sources…

As a technique of social control intimately associated with the display and control of power, humor reflects empowerment. Contemporary women have few traditions of using power, and a variety of covert factors have discouraged women's use of humor. The most significant of these is the way that the popular mind has defined humor as a male…

A theory explaining the essential nature of comedy is explored in this paper. The first part of the paper posits the theory that comedy is a relatively harmless divergence from an expected norm or outcome, and discusses the following elements of the theory: (1) the divergence from reality, (2) the notion of expectation that includes the entire…

This guide provides the teacher with strategies to aid students in examining five representative plays by Bernard Shaw and in comparing his comedy with the comic art of Oscar Wilde, Richard Sheridan, Ben Jonson, and William Shakespeare. Performance objectives include isolating elements which pertain to the life and times of Shaw, delineating…

This play-choosing guide is designed to help amateur theatrical companies in matching the casting, staging, costuming, and financial resources at their disposal with the corresponding requirements of about a hundred full-length plays. The plays have been divided into three categories: farces and comedies, drama, and thrillers and mysteries, and…

The twelve essays (each by a different author) in this volume cover drama in a liberal education, comment on the tragic hero, remarks on "Hamlet" and "Hedda Gabler," notes on music and drama, comment on didactic drama, an examination of "Andre," studies of the Haymarket Theatre, London productions of American plays,…

Describes how the jokes of Johnny Carson, David Letterman, and Joan Rivers explore, support, and disrupt different elements of the American social experience. Argues that joking is one strategy for encouraging and sustaining resistance to ideological control. (NKA)

Shows how the rhetoric of selected woman humorists from 1820 to 1880 exemplifies the operation of various comic literary reference frames. Asserts that their comic frame disintegrated because these writers were unable to foster identification between females and males and failed to provide a world view that could accommodate social change. (MM)