Product Description

Rather than attempting to produce a totalising definition of 'the comic', this volume focuses on the significance of comic 'events' through study of various theoretical methodologies, including deconstruction, psychoanalysis and gender theory.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #219091 in Books
• Published on: 2004-11-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

From the Back Cover
Andrew Stott tackles the question of comedy through an investigation of comic forms, theories and techniques, tracing the historical definitions of comedy from Aristotle to Chris Morris's Brass Eye via Wilde and Hancock.
This volume focuses on the significance of comic 'events' through study of various theoretical methodologies, including deconstruction, psychoanalysis and gender theory, and provides case studies of a number of themes, ranging from the drag act to the simplicity of slipping on a banana skin.

Customer Reviews

Best book on Comedy
If you're looking for a smart but easy history and critique of comedy from the Greeks to the present day, this is it. Full of examples, and able to take a long historical view that shows the complex and ever-changing nature of comic form without devoting itself to a single school or methodology, this is the most interesting and accessible book on comedy that I've ever read. Nice and concise too.