American Comedy: Shame, Mockery, and the Politics of Laughter

Catalog description

If national pride is a necessary condition for the self-improvement of a nation, as the American philosopher Richard Rorty has argued, then what happens when one’s relationship with one’s country is governed instead by overwhelming disgust? Can outrage and embarrassment form the basis of a national tradition? Who are the authors of the canon of American abjection? This course considers a countertradition of American letters comprised of authors uniquely attuned to America’s political and moral failures as well as those who, on the basis of race, class, and gender have no access to the feelings of national pride that animates so much of the American literary tradition. Readings for this course span the late nineteenth century to the present, drawing on a range of genres including fiction, film, and stand-up as well as some instances of drama, poetry, and television.