Tag Archives: Comedy

Rom-Coms, Defense against Heartbreak

One way of seeing “Tom Jones” is as “valentine armor,” alternating between romance and light satire. As such, it saves us from broken hearts.

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Humorless Twitter Boss as Malvolio

Elon Musk sparring with his Twitter critics is like Shakespeare’s Malvolio going after Feste.

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Read “12th Night” for Relationship Advice

In their essays on “Twelfth Night,” my students showed they are hungry for authentic relationships.

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A Bakhtinian Reading of Zelenskyy

To understand Ukraine’s Zelensky, Adam Gopnik applies the theories of Mikhail Bakhtin.

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Desire vs. Law in Shakespeare, Euripides

If a play turns comic or tragic often depends how how the clash between law and desire is negotiated.

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Comic Haikus Launch 2020 Election

Thursday Jason Gilbert, a producer at Comedy Central, has written a series of superb haikus on the Democratic presidential candidates, twenty of whom are splitting last night and tonight for the season’s first debate. As often with political comedy, it’s funniest when someone else’s ox is getting gored. Nevertheless, we need to laugh at our […]

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How Moliere Is Saving France

Moliere is helping French PM Macron steer a sane middle road between rightwing and leftwing purists.

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Shakespeare Was Malvolio

Recent research shows how much of a social climber Shakespeare was. The knowledge gives us new insight into characters like Malvolio and Othello.

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Comedy & Sentiment, a Potent Mixture

Literature that moves the heart seems opposed to comedy, but sometimes they work together.

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