ENGL 207
Comedy Spring 2025 (also offered Fall 2024)
Division I W Writing Skills

Class Details

Is comedy necessary? What calls for comedy? And why does comedy often deal with topics that we think are no laughing matters? When we respond to comedy, whom are we laughing with, and whom are we laughing at? When does comedy become obsolete, and how do new comedic voices and figures emerge? How do old comedies find new audiences, and when they do, does that reflect a deep continuity between the context of its making and that of its reception? Or, can comedies leave their origins behind and find new meaning in radically different historical contexts? Answers to these questions differ wildly across comedies. In this course, we will look at comedies from various historical periods (ancient to contemporary), cultural traditions, and artforms (drama, fiction, film, stand-up). We will study their conventions, plots, props, jokes, and running gags (both physical and verbal). At times, we will try to approach the comedies from the inside by recreating some of its effects and come to understand how they are made. A variety of critical theories that will help us consider comedy’s connections to embodiment, ritual, sexuality, history, and racial difference. We will engage with comedic works by William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Richard Pryor, and Cheryl Dunye. Alongside the comedic works we will engage with the social and aesthetic theories of Anne Carson, Northrop Frye, Sigmund Freud, Susan Sontag, and Saidiya Hartman.
The Class: Format: seminar
Limit: 19
Expected: 19
Class#: 4007
Grading: no pass/fail option, no fifth course option
Requirements/Evaluation: four essays totaling 18-20 pages; active class participation; other short informal writing exercises
Prerequisites: a 100-level ENGL course, or a score of 5 on the AP English Literature exam, or a score of 6 or 7 on the Higher Level IB English exam
Enrollment Preferences: First and Second Year Students considering the English Major who have not yet taken a Gateway course.
Unit Notes: Also fulfils the English Major Literary History Requirement A, B or C.
Distributions: Divison I Writing Skills
WS Notes: Four essays (ranging in length from 4-6 pages long) in multiple drafts, adding up to 18-20 pages total. Students will receive from the instructor timely comments on their writing skills, with suggestions for improvement.
Attributes: ENGL 200-level Gateway Courses
ENGL Literary Histories A

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  • ENGL 207 - 01 (S) SEM Comedy
    ENGL 207 - 01 (S) SEM Comedy
    Division I W Writing Skills
    Jeewon Yoo
    MR 1:10 pm - 2:25 pm
    4007
    Open

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