Professor: Corinne Bayerl

4.00 credits

• CRN 32241: Tuesday & Thursday, 10:00-11:20 AM @ PSC B042

The very attempt of trying to define humor is itself one of the definitions of humor, wrote the cartoonist Saul Steinberg. Yet, at the risk of being laughable, we will try exactly this and carry out serious research into humor and comedy! By analyzing and laughing about comedic plays and films across cultures, we will find out what is culturally specific about comedy and what isn’t. An in-depth look at classical Japanese comedies called Kyōgen – short, skit-like plays written in the 14th century CE – will put our assumptions about universal patterns of comedy to the test. Historical and critical secondary readings will enrich our understanding of how comedy reflects societal norms, and how psychoanalysts, philosophers, and literary scholars have attempted to define what comedy is, why it makes people laugh, and what its ultimate purpose may be.

This course is designed primarily to teach basic research skills in the humanities and in the social sciences: locating digital and physical source materials in and through the library, critically engaging with scholarly work, composing written analyses, presenting our findings orally, and constructively critiquing the work of others as part of a community of emerging scholars.