ENGL1011: Laughter and Literature Through the Ages

Explaining how comedy differs from tragedy, Aristotle observed that "Man is the only animal who laughs and cries." Like our other emotions, laughter and grief are not rational (a purely reasonable animal would not be swayed by feelings), and that's why any attempt to rationalize either of these paradoxical emotions is likely to fail. Traditionally, grief is separated from laughter by using the twin categories of comic and tragic. But even in drama or literature, grief is not utterly desperate and laughter is not always funny. This last paradox -that laughter need not be comic- serves as a basic axiom for our course, which will study not just the laughter presented in literature but historical (e.g., classical and medieval) examples. Instead of focusing on contradictory generic theories, this course examines laughter in specific dramatic, narrative and historical works from ancient Greece and Rome down through the medieval and modern eras. This course will show students how to bring a historical perspective to bear on the philosophical question, "What is laughter?" As modern readers, they will learn that the best way for us to study a past culture is to start with critical thinking about our own.

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