shakespeare’s genres focus on comedy. shakespeare’s genres comedy merry wives twelfth night...
TRANSCRIPT
Shakespeare’s GenresFocus on Comedy
Shakespeare’s Genres
ComedyMerry Wives
Twelfth Night
TragedyTitus Andronicus
HistoryHenry V
RomanceThe Tempest
Comedy: Jokes are Serious. Really.
• Safe space to deal with fears and anxieties; or, don’t try this at home
• Safety valve for social tensions: carnivalesque• Verbal irony: saying one thing and meaning
another• Social regulation: laughter at someone• Social regulation and release (see carnivalesque):
laughter with someone
Safe space to deal with fears and anxieties; or, don’t try this at home
• If I slip on a banana and die it’s a tragedy
• If I slip on a banana and fall in a vat of chocolate, from which I emerge a sweet dessert but unharmed, it’s a comedy
Safety valve for social tensions: carnivalesque
Mardi Gras --Carnivalesque gender inversion, drinking and masking
Safety valve for social tensions: carnivalesque
Mardi Gras --Holiday foolery
Verbal irony: saying one thing and meaning another
You: That’s your new hairstyle? I’m really impressed with it. You must have done it yourself. What’s really amazing is how you trimmed the back. Me: You know I paid $150 for this haircut from a stylist. That’s not nice. Does it really look terrible?No: Of course not. I was only joking!Me:
It really looks bad, doesn’t it?
Social regulation: laughter at someone• Don’t be clueless• Don’t try to hard• Don’t try to be
inspirational in a nerdy way
Social regulation and release (see carnivalesque): laughter with someone
• We feel as one when we laugh together at our boss
• We feel as one when we laugh together at nerdy attempts to instill good values
Social regulation and release (see carnivalesque): laughter with someone
Festivity: Carnival’s corollary: release from social norms > celebration of social order through happy ritual
Renaissance Comedy• Carnival Release (disorder)• Festival togetherness (social order restored). Festival is
usually a marriage• Comedies have happy endings
• Happy ending creates safe space for rehearsal of tensions, anxieties or fears
• Happy ending brings the society together from those tensions, anxieties or fears
And always remember …