Only a Joke Can Save Us: A Theory of Comedy

Author:   Todd McGowan
Publisher:   Northwestern University Press
ISBN:  

9780810135802


Pages:   288
Publication Date:   30 September 2017
Format:   Paperback
Availability:   In stock   Availability explained
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Only a Joke Can Save Us: A Theory of Comedy


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Overview

Only a Joke Can Save Us presents an innovative and comprehensive theory of comedy. Using a wealth of examples from high and popular culture and with careful attention to the treatment of humor in philosophy, Todd McGowan locates the universal source of comedy in the interplay of the opposing concepts lack and excess. After reviewing the treatment of comedy in the work of philosophers as varied as Aristotle, G. W. F. Hegel, Sigmund Freud, Henri Bergson, and Alenka Zupancic, McGowan, working in a psychoanalytic framework, demonstrates that comedy results from the deployment of lack and excess, whether in contrast, juxtaposition, or interplay. Illustrating the power and flexibility of this framework with analyses of films ranging from Buster Keaton and Marx Brothers classics to Dr. Strangelove and Groundhog Day, McGowan shows how humor can reveal gaps in being and gaps in social order. Scholarly yet lively and readable, Only a Joke Can Save Us is a groundbreaking examination of the enigmatic yet endlessly fascinating experience of humor and comedy.

Full Product Details

Author:   Todd McGowan
Publisher:   Northwestern University Press
Imprint:   Northwestern University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 1.50cm , Length: 22.60cm
Weight:   0.300kg
ISBN:  

9780810135802


ISBN 10:   0810135809
Pages:   288
Publication Date:   30 September 2017
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In stock   Availability explained
We have confirmation that this item is in stock with the supplier. It will be ordered in for you and dispatched immediately.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments Introduction: The Similar and the Dissimilar Lack and Excess Theory and Opposition Tragedy and Pathos Philosophy and the Finite Signification and Desire Distance and Proximity Outside and Inside Politics and Comedy Conclusion: Speculation and Levity

Reviews

Only a Joke Can Save Us offers a master class in psychoanalysis masquerading as a master class in comedy. McGowan's theory yields powerful, persuasive, original insights into examples as varied as classic cinema, Jewish jokes, Kierkegaard, and Shakespeare. This master class will be thoroughly enjoyed by philosophers, cultural critics, affect theorists, and psychoanalytic thinkers alike. - Anna Kornbluh, author of Realizing Capital: Financial and Psychic Economies in Victorian Realist Form


Author Information

Todd McGowan is an associate professor of film and television studies at the University of Vermont.

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