Tag Archives: Romantic Comedy

Rom-Coms, Defense against Heartbreak

By Robin Bates | Published: November 19, 2023

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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Feuding Couples Comedy

By Robin Bates | Published: October 28, 2019

I have just begun teaching a “Feuding Couples Comedy” course. “Much Ado about Nothing” remains the quintessential example of the genre.

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Couples Fighting: It Must Be Love

By Robin Bates | Published: June 10, 2019

Tuesday I read plays all day yesterday with an eye toward an upcoming class on “Battling Couples in Theatre and Film (the Comic Version).” The September course is part of Sewanee’s “Lifelong Learning” series. As the course runs for four weeks, I will teach four plays and four movies, pairing a play with a film […]

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How Ephron Saved Romantic Comedies

By Robin Bates | Published: July 6, 2012

Nora Ephron draw on Woody’s Allen’s “nervous comedies” to save romantic comedies.

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Romantic Comedy, A Fruitful Oxymoron

By Robin Bates | Published: December 15, 2009

I met with my British Restoration and 18th Century Couples Comedy class for one last time today.  I baked them a whiskey cake (I do this for all of my classes), and we reflected on the experience of the course. We had undertaken quite a journey, starting out with the scandalous poetry of the licentious […]

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