Comedy is the middle ground upon which the absurd and the serious meet. Concerned with illuminating pain, human imperfection, and man's failure to measure up to his own or the world's concept of perfection, comedy provides "an escape, not from truth but from despair." If tragedy says that some ideals are worth dying for, comedy asserts…

"Exploring Television" is an inquiry/discovery textbook designed to help students to understand, analyze, criticize, evaluate, and judge the experiences they have had in front of the television set. The text consists of three main parts. "The Medium" inquires into the radio-movie origins of television and prompts research into the networks and…

A collection of thirty royalty-free one-act plays for young players, using a wide range of dramatic forms, imaginative settings and colorful characters, is presented. A variety of subjects is included in these comedies, dramas, spoofs and programs: science fiction, ecology, history, storybook classics, and glimpses into life and folklore of other…

Humor can enliven classes, establish and maintain rapport, create ambiance for learning, and enhance student acquisition and retention. Ways to use humor in the classroom are presented, including clearly verbal approaches, visual aid techniques (magazines, cartoons, ads, etc.), and the humor of stand-up comedians. (12 references) (LB)

Although Will Rogers often described himself as "just a cowboy with a lot of luck," he was more than that. At one time or another he was a vaudeville entertainer, film star, world traveler, author, columnist, and after-dinner speaker. The most beloved figure of his time, this famous humorist was also part Cherokee Indian. Rogers was born…

This selective bibliography, a guide to scholarship in Tudor and Stuart drama, attempts to provide ample coverage of the major topics and authors, with emphasis on work published since 1920. References excluded are most non-English studies, studies devoted exclusively to anonymous plays or those of minor authors, and unpublished dissertations.…

Reviews current theories of humor development, discusses the interaction of humor with other developmental areas (including cognitive development, personality development, creativity, and moral development), and suggests ways in which research can be applied in the early childhood classroom. (Author/DST)

Describes a week-long multidisciplinary program (in association with a theatre history survey course) called "Roman Holiday: Classical Comedy/Contemporary Commentary" which featured guest lectures; a student-directed production; a video screening; and the presentation of Hollywood films. Notes that the program addresses the disparity between the…

This paper is a collage of voices and ideas that attempts to move us away from an understanding of philosophy as argument and counterargument toward an ecosystemic, or wild, conception of philosophy as story in the mode of comedy. (Contains 4 notes.)

Rhetorical scholarship criticizes melodrama for its tendency to simplify and reify public controversies and valorizes the comic frame as an ethically superior mode of rhetoric. These judgments are rooted in the discipline's reliance on Burkean categories, a reductionist conception of melodrama, and an implicit assumption that social unification…

THIS SOURCE BOOK TRANSLATES THE ELEGANT AND SOMEWHAT ALIEN WORLD OF RESTORATION COMEDY INTO TERMS THAT CAN ENABLE AMERICAN DIRECTORS AND ACTORS--BY EMPLOYING THE ACTING "METHOD" OF CONTEMPORARY PSYCHOLOGICAL REALISM--TO SIMULATE THE EXPERIENCE, PERCEPTION, AND EXPRESSION OF THE 17TH-CENTURY ENGLISH ARISTOCRAT. TO ENCOURAGE DIRECTORS TO…

The third volume in the NCTE Distinguished Lectures Series, this collection of papers includes (1) William Stafford on poetry and the language of everyday life, (2) Fred Stocking linking Shakespeare to his time and all time by analysing "temperance" in Sonnet 18, (3) Alan Downer discussing the nature of comedy in drama and the universal…

THE FIRST UNIT OF THE STUDENT PACKET FOR GRADE NINE OF THE NEBRASKA ENGLISH CURRICULUM IS A STUDY OF THE RELATIONSHIPS WHICH EXIST BETWEEN AUTHOR AND AUDIENCE, AND AN EXAMINATION OF THE EPIGRAM, LIMERICK, PARABLE, FABLE, AND ODE. WITH THIS BACKGROUND, STUDENTS CONSIDER "ON AVARICE" AND "ANIMAL FARM" AS EXAMPLES OF FORMAL AND…

The Entertainment Studies Interest Group of the proceedings contains the following 9 papers: "Beyond Modern Racism: Backlash and Brutality on 'The Shield'" (John D. Richardson); "Big Brother and the T-Group: How We Might Learn from Reality Television" (Rod Allen and Nod Miller); "Hegemony and Counterhegemony in Bravo's…

Discussion of academic library instruction focuses on the use of humor to make it more effective. Highlights include a literature review on humor in education, as a communication device, and use in the business sector; a stand-up comedy workshop; lecture humor; and humorous active learning activities. (LRW)