The 1930's and 1940's have come to be known as the "Golden Age" of Hollywood cinema, because during this era Hollywood set the stylistic and narrative norms for mainstream cinema and turned out more films, of an arguably higher general quality, than at any other time in its history. In this seminar, we will explore one of the crucial genres of classical Hollywood cinema: comedy, whose varied resources inspired Hollywood's foremost directors and stars to make many of the finest films of the classical era. The diversity of these works-ranging from the brilliant slapstick and pathos of Chaplin and Keaton, through the resonant social and cultural allegories of Hawks's and Capra's screwball comedy, to the witty urbanity of Lubitsch and the zany subversiveness of Sturges-will permit us to engage a wide array of questions. Among other matters, we will be concerned with issues of fate and victimization in slapstick comedy, with the social conflicts arising from class and gender difference and their possible conciliations, with travesties and rediscoveries of one's identity, with the nature of romantic fidelity and betrayal, and with the volatile comic rapport between reason and the unconscious, sexuality and moral constraint. Because of the emergence in screwball comedy of a new type of female protagonist, the importance to American popular culture of female film stars, and the prominence of feminist perspectives in theorizing the nature of cinema generally, we will be steadily concerned with issues of gender and the representation of women. Requirements: active participation in class discussions, two short papers, and a long final paper incorporating earlier work. Major Seminar. Permission of English Department chair required: see information above. Students are urged (but not required) to take English 204 before enrolling in this seminar. Enrollment limited to 15. (Post-1900)