230561 American Comic Literature and Democracy (BS) (SoSe 2015)

The multi-ethnic makeup of the United States has from the beginning of the republic been
generated by folk/ethnic humor. This seminar will examine ethnic comic literature, standup
comedy skits, and clips from comic films to investigate the ways in which humor has been
employed to create intimacy and bridges between differing ethnic communities. We will be
especially interested in humor associated with the body, a tradition that began in the Renaissance.
Accordingly, we will begin with a brief consideration of Boccaccio’s bawdy humor, before going
on to demonstrations of comedy in Jewish, Southern, African American, and Latino/a comic
texts. Our readings will be guided by some key theoretical studies of humor drawn from
psychology, anthropology, sociology, and literary studies, and will center on issues of orality,
joking, audience, and performance.

Bibliography

Fiction:

Giovanni Boccaccio. Selections from The Decameron
Abraham Cahan, Yekl
Eudora Welty, “Why I Live at the P.O.”; “Petrified Man”
John Kennedy Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces (selections)
Langston Hughes, “Slave on the Block”; “Rejuvenation Through Joy”
Zora Neale Hurston, “The Gilded Six-Bits”; “Story in Harlem Slang”
John Leguizamo, Mambo Mouth

Theory:

Sigmund Freud, Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious (selections)
Mahadev Apte, Humor and Laughter: An Anthropological Approach (selections)
Christie Davies, Ethnic Humour Around the World (Selections)
John Lowe, “How to Enter Laughing: Theories of Ethnic Humor”
Mikhail Bakhtin, Rabelais and His World (selections)

Video:

Skits by Jeff Foxworthy
Skits by Richard Pryor
Skits by Margaret Cho
Skits by Lenny Bruce
Clips from Trading Places
Clips from The Producers
Clips from There’s Something About Mary