Humor and Comedy in French and Francophone Culture

Catalog description

This course will trace the prominent role played by humor and comedy in French and Francophone literature and culture from the Middle Ages to the contemporary era in a variety of genres and media, including theater, novels, cartoons, comics, films, and stand-up comedy. Through our exploration of this broad sampling, we will learn how humorous and comedic works reflect their historical circumstances, and we will also arrive at a deeper theoretical understanding of different kinds of humor and comedy and how they function. In particular, we will try to answer the following questions: - Do humor and comedy inherently depend upon a sense of superiority? In other words, if we laugh, is it always at someone else’s expense? - Do comedy and humor simply reinforce established social hierarchies based on race, gender, and class, or can it provide a way to challenge them? - What makes French and Francophone humor culturally specific? For example, how is a French comedy different from an American one, and how can we trace the evolution of comedic tropes from the earliest known French comedic works to contemporary ones? - Why do scatology and body humor play such a prominent role in French comedic works? - What are some of the different modes of satire, and are they meant to change society or keep it static? - What can comedic works tell us about French republican universalism and its potential shortcomings? All primary readings, discussions, and assignments will be in French. Some secondary readings will be in English.