{"product_id":"9781474247894","title":"Reader in Comedy : An Anthology of Theory and Criticism","description":"\u003cstrong\u003eReader in Comedy\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis unique anthology presents a selection of over seventy of the most important historical essays on comedy, ranging from antiquity to the present, divided into historical periods and arranged chronologically.  Across its span it traces the development of comic theory, highlighting the relationships between comedy, politics, economics, philosophy, religion, and other arts and genres. Students of literature and theatre will find this collection an invaluable and accessible guide to writing from Plato and Aristotle through to the twenty-first century, in which special attention has been paid to writings since the start of the twentieth century.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eReader in Comedy\u003c\/i\u003e is arranged in five sections, each featuring an introduction providing concise and informed historical and theoretical frameworks for the texts from the period:\u003cbr\u003e* Antiquity and the Middle Ages\u003cbr\u003e* The Renaissance\u003cbr\u003e* Restoration to Romanticism\u003cbr\u003e* The Industrial Age\u003cbr\u003e* The Twentieth and Early Twenty-First Centuries\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAmong the many authors included are: Plato, Aristotle, Horace, Donatus, Dante Alighieri, Erasmus, Trissino, Sir Thomas Elyot, Thomas Wilson, Sir Philip Sidney, Ben Jonson, Battista Guarini, Molière, William Congreve, John Dryden, Henry Fielding, Samuel Johnson, Oliver Goldsmith, Jean Paul Richter, William Hazlitt, Charles Lamb, Søren Kierkegaard, Charles Baudelaire, Bernard Shaw, Mark Twain, Henri Bergson, Constance Rourke, Northrop Frye, Jacques Derrida, Mikhail Bakhtin, Georges Bataille, Simon Critchley and Michael North.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs the selection demonstrates, from Plato and Aristotle to Henri Bergson and Sigmund Freud, comedy has attracted the attention of serious thinkers. Bringing together diverse theories of comedy from across the ages, the \u003ci\u003eReader \u003c\/i\u003ereveals that, far from being peripheral, comedy speaks to the most pragmatic aspects of human life.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReview(s):\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e“[The editors] model a clear acceptance of historical shifts in ideas on the function of comedy, providing rigorous contextualization that locates each idea in its moment in time, and makes this a robust and useful primer for Western comedy theory through the ages … A strong collection of foundational texts for those looking to ground themselves in Western scholarship of the comic over time.” - \u003ci\u003eJournal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Editors Magda Romanska and Alan Ackerman open their book by admitting the difficulty of their tasks: to historicize a genre so diverse in form and style and to define a genre (and its many subgenres) that itself resists definition. Rising to the challenge, the editors of \u003ci\u003eReader in Comedy: An Anthology of Theory and Criticism \u003c\/i\u003ehave created a temporally expansive analysis of western comic theory. Romanska and Ackerman’s collection of theoretical texts tells a story of how comedy and comic theory reflect and influence theatrical and performance conventions, social structures, technology, philosophy, and civic life. It is a substantial anthology that interweaves performance studies, drama, literature, and critical theory. Romanska and Ackerman have curated a collection that charts continuity in comic theory without diluting historical specificities. Each introduction to the chapters succinctly contextualizes the comic theory of its time and also links the annotated texts to previous chapters. Consequently, I would recommend this text for a survey course on comedy and comic theory in the United States and Europe, or to any scholar seeking a broad overview of writings on comedy.” – \u003ci\u003eModern Drama\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e“\u003ci\u003eReader in Comedy\u003c\/i\u003e presents a rich resource in helping students and scholars chronologically organize theories of humor, laughter, and comedy and demonstrates the dialogic nature of humor theories across continents and over centuries as well as the ways in which these theories are so often interrelated.” - \u003ci\u003eStudies in American Humor\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eISBN:  9781474247894\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e ","brand":"Methuen Drama","offers":[{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":40633932087502,"sku":"9781474247894","price":150.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0600\/7029\/7806\/products\/getimage_42a27860-5154-4b70-bb9b-026f9f897af5.jpg?v=1638928921","url":"https:\/\/pickwickbookshop.com\/products\/9781474247894","provider":"Pickwick Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}