Comedy and Power Struggle
Aristophanes, The Clouds, The Frogs, The Wasps (other nasty plays, less sex though, about Athenian politics)
Menander, Dyskolos (published in 1959!)
Plautus, Rope, Pot of Gold, Pseudolus, Casina (other good Plautus sitcoms from 200 years ago)
Terence, The Mother-in-Law, The Eunuch (the other Roman Comedy guy, like Andrew from Wham! but who still had some hits)
Dante, Divine Comedy (maybe the most influential work of creative writing ever; how has it influenced, uh, everything from Hieronymus Bosch to Hellboy)
Chaucer, Canterbury Tales (and yes, you can compare it to Knight’s Tale)
Ariosto, Lena (alpha hooker with heart of gold play)
Calderon, Life is a Dream (wise-ass prince is convinced he has been dreaming his good life)
Machiavelli, Mandrake, Clizia (along with The Prince, the guy wrote some good sex comedy)
de Pizan, City of Ladies (think of it as The View ca. 1500)
Cervantes, Don Quixote (musical version called Man of La Mancha)
Shakespeare, Midsummer Night’s Dream (no for term pape, though!), Tempest, Comedy of Errors, Twelfth Night, Taming of the Shrew, As You Like It, Love’s Labours Lost
Jonson, Volpone (based on Plautus, modern versions called The Sly Fox)
Aphra Behn, The Royal Slave, The Rover (maybe the first feminist comic dramatist; very good essayist on her method as well)
Swift, Gulliver’s Travels, A Modest Proposal (voyages of Lemuel G. and a suggestion that famine is curable by eating one’s one kids!)
Rabelais, Gargantua and Pantagruel (two giants, father and son, have lots of semi-gross adventures 500 years ago)
Goldoni, Servant of Two Masters (along with Moliere, a master of the commedia dell’arte form but tailored for an Italian audience)
Moliere, The Misanthrope, Imaginary Invalid (a couple more masterworks by the guy who wrote Tartuffe)
Diderot, Jacques the Fatalist and His Master (the best work by another French master satiric dramatist; other two are Beaumarchais and Marivaux
Pope, Rape of the Lock (epic poem about a bad haircut)
Fielding, Tom Jones (excellent 1960s film version)
Sheridan, Rivals(funny sex comedy with the great character Mrs. Malaprop)
Sterne, Tristram Shandy (really good recent film version)
Byron, Don Juan (the world’s greatest lover)
Franklin, Poor Richard’s Almanac (quite subversive, Franklin was not the kindly old gent from the $)
Irving, Knickerbocker Tales (Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Rip van Winkle)
Twain, Huckleberry Finn (but you can’t use it on your term paper)
Carroll, Through the Looking Glass (Alice in Wonderland)
Shaw, Pygmalion (My Fair Lady)
Wilde, Importance of Being Earnest (very interesting recent film version plus one from the 1950s0
Chekhov, Cherry Orchard (1904, comic drama about the doom of a Russian family)
Feydeau, A Flea in Her Ear (French sex farce of all time)
Waugh, Loved One (1960s film version; weird)
Lewis, Screwtape Letters (Narnia author’s dialogue b/w devils)
Gilbert and Sullivan, Pirates of Penzance, Mikado (comic light opera, lots of versions and references visually)
Kafka, Trial (weird Orson Welles version from the late 1950s)
Orwell, Animal Farm (weird animated adaptation from a few years back w/talking dog) no-go for term paper!
Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek (great film version from early 1960s; really disturbing)
Calvino, Cosmicomics (surrealist Italian short stories)
Bulgakov, Heart of a Dog (bizarre satire of post-Bolshevik Russia
Von Kleist, The Broken Jug (yes, Germany CAN create comedy)
Marquis, archy and mehitabel (about a philosophical cockroach and an alcoholic cat)
Hasek, Good Soldier Svjek (Czech novel from WWI; very influential in Europe)
Parker, What Fresh Hell is This? (wickedly nasty poems from a Roaring 20s female POV)
West, Miss Lonelyhearts (root of a famous 80s novel/film called Bright Lights, Big City; 50s film too)
Ionesco, Rhinoceros (one of the great absurdist dramas; incredible filmed stage version with Zero Mostel)
Frayn , Noises Off (great backstage farce; funny film version)
Hecht and MacArthur, The Front Page (lots of versions on film, His Girl Friday is best)
Thurber, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (totally altered film version b/c of WWII)
Heller, Catch-22 (unadaptable novel but Mike Nichols tried in 1970 and almost succeeded)
Albee, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (scabrous play about a marriage breaking up; wicked film)
Shepherd, In God We Trust–All Others Pay Cash (basis for A Christmas Story)
DeLillo, White Noise (great satire of political correctness and academia)
Allen, Without Feathers, Side Effects (before he became a film director and World’s Best Stepdad!)
Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five (weird 70s film version)
Irving, The World According to Garp (80s film version with Robin Williams; odd)
Mamet, Sexual Perversity in Chicago (became Brat Pack film About Last Night)
Kundera, Unbearable Lightness of Being Prague Spring story about a love triangle (good film adapation)
Amado, Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands (good film version from Brazil; lots of Carnavale stuff)
Sembene, Xala (a rich guy in Senegal thinks he is cursed to be impotent)
Westlake, The Hot Rock (unsung novelist who writes about a cursed thief named Dortmunder)
Bushnell, Sex and the City (Carrie was not always Sarah Jessica)
Spiegelman, Maus (graphic novel allegorizing the Holocaust)
Matt Groening, Life in Hell, The Simpsons (the more you luck, the more is in there)
Buckley, Thank You for Smoking (good movie; his new novel Boomsday is pretty evil also)
Sandra Bernhard, Confessions of a Pretty Lady, Without You I’m Nothing (iconoclastic feminist performer)
Francis Veber, Le Jeu de Cons/The Dinner Game, Les Comperes/Fathers’ Day, Le Chevre/Pure Luck
Les Fugitifs/Three Fugitives, [recent LA Times article on Veber’s career] French Comic Voice/Hollywood Homogenization
David Lynch, Wild at Heart (film) compared with Barry Gifford’s novel of the same name (plus other Sailor and Lula stories).
“Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants” (performance video), Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women (history of specialty performance)
MASH comparison among Richard Hooker novel, Robert Altman film and TV show
Mel Watkins, On the Real Side (history of African-American standup) vis. Richard Pryor performance videos
compare to Chris Rock in his various personae: Bring the Pain, Bigger and Blacker, HBO host, Lethal Weapon IV
Sam Kinison, “Louder than Hell” (performance vid) Brother Sam bio by Bill Kinison (sacred vs. profane)
Michele Serros, Chicana Falsa, How To Be a Chicana Role Model
Sandra Tsing-Loh, If You Lived Here, You’d Be Home Now plus Bad Sex with Bud Kemp and essays :Chinese German female POV in LA
Sherman Alexie, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven plus film version Smoke Signals (Chris Eyre: 1998) and Pow Wow Highway : Native American perspective
Radio: Ira Glass, “This American Life,” Garrison Keillor, ‘Prairie Home Companion,” Bob and Ray (radio satire), Harry Shearer, “Le Show” (plus any old radio sitcom or variety hour analyzed from a contemporary aesthetic)
Old-time TV: I Love Lucy, Sgt. Bilko, All in the Family, heck Brady Bunch sitcom v. film
Contemporary Internet Humor eg Onion, McSweeney’s
15_Spring+320+term+paper+guidelines (1) (1)
320 Medieval Comedy Vocabulary
roman_comedy_and_miles_gloriosus
Comic Spirit Themes and Terms (1)
Answer preview
Don Juan is a famous legendary character who features in many literatures and musical works. Some of these works include Dom Juan, ou Le Festin de Pierre (1665) and Don Giovanni (1787). Don Juan is one of Byron’s unfinished poems which he wrote between 1819-1824 and George Shaw’s ‘Man and Superman’ which was written in 1903.
APA
1572 words