ENGL 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Fourth Wall, Plot Twist, Signify

• School: Queen's University
• Department: English
• Course: ENGL 100
• Professor: John Pierce

Document Summary

Comedy: origins: oldest of literary terms - greek a revel , about fertility, originates in festivities to celebrate spring, in praise of dionysus, god of fertility and wine. High comedy: relies in wit and wordplay, intellectual laughter - thoughtful laughter from spectators who remain emotionally detached from the action (abrams 56, subtypes, comedy of manners. Low comedy: relies on physical action and gags , limited intellectual interest, interest in drunkenness, stupidity, lust, senility, trickery, insult and clumsiness (kennedy 1138, subtypes, slapstick comedy, burlesque or travesty, farce. Represents a love affair that involves a beautiful and engaging heroine (sometimes disguised as a man); the course of this love does not run smooth yet overcomes all difficulties to end in a happy union . Evokes intellectual laughter thoughtful laughter from spectators who remain emotionally detached from the action at the spectacle of folly, pretentiousness, and incongruity in human behaviour .