COMP 234 Comedy/Tragedy (Same as English 235) (Not offered 2008-2009; to be offered 2009-2010) (W)

ENGL 235 Comedy/Tragedy (Same as Comparative Literature 234) (Gateway) (Not offered 2008-2009; to be offered 2009-2010) (W)
"Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall down an open manhole cover and die." Critics have long sought to define comedy and tragedy against each other, yet, as Mel Brooks' joke suggests, the relationship between the two is complicated, even disturbing. In this course we will read tragedies by Sophocles, Marlowe and Racine, comedies by Aristophanes, Shakespeare and Moliere, and works that do not easily fit either classification by Chekhov, Beckett and Stoppard. We will consider how in different periods the distinction between the two forms has been understood and their antithetical effects accounted for. We will discuss the essential if also problematic link between suffering and pleasure, and ask why it is that comedy persists while tragedy, at least in its classical expression, no longer seems possible. Critical readings will include Aristotle's Poetics, Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy, and Bergson's Laughter.
Format: discussion/seminar. Requirements: four or five short essays, including at least one revision. There will also be periodic film screenings.
Prerequisites: a 100-level English course, except 150. Enrollment limit: 19 (expected: 19). Preference given to first-year students, sophomores, and English majors who have yet to take a Gateway.
(Criticism)
KLEINER