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Comedy A Geographic and Historical Guide [Two Volumes]
Maurice Charney
ISBN: 0-313-32706-8
ISBN-13: 978-0-313-32706-3
688 pages
Praeger Publishers
Publication: 9/30/2005
List Price: $341.95 (UK Sterling Price: £235.95)
Discount Price: $170.98 Sale Price for U.S. Customers Only. Save 50%. Ends 12/31/2009.
Availability: In Stock
Media Type: Hardcover
Trim Size: 7 x 10
Subjects:
Description: Comedy is a fundamental part of the human experience. Collecting the work of today's leading scholars, Maurice Charney presents 40 essays on the many forms that comedy has taken throughout history. Ranging from the comic plays of ancient times to Renaissance and Restoration comedies, from Commedia dell'Arte to stand-up performers, from trickster tales to television sitcoms, these surveys trace the evolution of the comic genre. Chapters on geographically based traditions (American regional humor, Irish comedy, Spanish comedy, etc.) contribute a multicultural understanding, while essays on such topics as Irony, Satire, and the Comedy of Philosophy examine the theoretical aspects of comedy. A glossary for important figures and terms will be of added value to readers of this wonderfully eclectic collection.

Comedy is a fundamental part of the human experience. Collecting the work of today's leading scholars, Maurice Charney presents 40 essays on the many forms that comedy has taken throughout history. Ranging from the comic plays of ancient times to Renaissance and Restoration comedies, from Commedia dell'Arte to stand-up performers, from trickster tales to television sitcoms, these surveys trace the evolution of the comic genre. Chapters on geographically based traditions (American regional humor, Irish comedy, Spanish comedy, etc.) contribute a multicultural understanding, while essays on such topics as Irony, Satire, and the Comedy of Philosophy examine the theoretical aspects of comedy. A glossary for important figures and terms adds even more to this wonderfully eclectic collection.

Editor Maurice Charney brings his lifetime of scholarship on comedy and drama to these volumes, which collect new essays from today's leading scholars on the subject of comedy in its many forms.
Table of Contents:
  • Introduction
    Volume I
    Academic Humor by Paul Schlueter
    African-American Comedians by Frank J. Miles
    African-American Humor by John W. Lowe
    African Film Comedy by Carina Yervasi
    American Drama Since 1975 by Richard Brucher
    American Film by Leo Charney
    American Jewish Humor by James D. Bloom
    American Literature in the Nineteenth Century by Susan Welsh
    American Political Cartoons and Comics by Kalman Goldstein
    Animation by Kirsten Thompson
    Arthurian Romance by Andrew Welsh
    Black Comedy by Benjamin Nathan Schachtman
    British Contemporary Comedy by David Hawkes
    Canadian Comedy by Gerald Lynch
    Children's Humor by Kathryn Douglas
    Commedia dell' Arte by Frances K. Barasch
    English Comedy, Elizabethan and Jacobean, Naomi Conn Liebler
    English Comedy, Restoration and Augustan, John Richetti
    English Comedy, Victorian, by Heather L. Braun

    Volume II
    Farce by Norman R. Shapiro
    French Contemporary Comedy by Alyson Waters
    French Drama in the 17th Century by Philip Koch
    German Comedy by Bettina Brandt
    Greek Comedy by Mary C. English
    Irish Comedy by James M. Cahalan
    Irony by Don L. F. Nilsen and Alleen Pace Nilsen
    Italian Comedy by Nina da Vinci Nichols
    Middle English Comedy by Andrew Welsh
    Native American Trickster Tales by Arnold Krupat
    The Philosophy of Humor by Adrian Bardon
    Queer Comedy by Ken Feil
    Roman Comedy by Maurice Charney
    The Romantic Period by William Galperin
    Satire by Harry Keyishian
    Shakespeare's Comedies and Romances by Margaret Mikesell
    Spanish Comedy by Nina Gerassi-Navarro and Raquel Medina-Banon
    Stand Up Comedy by Lawrence E. Mintz
    Television Sitcoms by Leo Charney
    Glossary
    About the Editor and Authors
    Index
About the Author: MAURICE CHARNEY is Professor of English at Rutgers University and the author of several books on the history and theory of comedy, including Comedy High and Low. A former president of the Shakespeare Association of America, Charney has authored All of Shakespeare, How to Read Shakespeare, and Shakespeare on Love & Lust.
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