Slapstick: An Interdisciplinary Companion

Published by De Gruyter 2021

Slapstick: An Interdisciplinary Companion

Edited by: Ervin Malakaj and Alena E. Lyons

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110571981

Overview
Contents

About this book

Despite its unabated popularity with audiences, slapstick has received rather little scholarly attention, mostly by scholars concentrating on the US theater and cinema traditions. Nonetheless, as a form of physical humor slapstick has a long history across various areas of cultural production. This volume approaches slapstick both as a genre of situational physical comedy and as a mode of communicating an affective situation captured in various cultural products. Contributors to the volume examine cinematic, literary, dramatic, musical, and photographic texts and performances. From medieval chivalric romance and nineteenth-century theater to contemporary photography, the contributors study treatments of slapstick across media, periods and geographic locations. The aim of a study of such wide scope is to demonstrate how slapstick emerged from a variety of complex interactions among different traditions and by extension, to illustrate that slapstick can be highly productive for interdisciplinary research.

Author information

Alena E. Lyons, Eberhard Karl University, Tübingen, Germany; Ervin Malakaj, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC/Canada.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	I
Acknowledgements Publicly Available Download PDF	V
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	VII
Introduction: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Slapstick Ervin Malakaj and Alena E. Lyons Publicly Available Download PDF	1
Part I: History of Slapstick
Introduction Alena E. Lyons and Ervin Malakaj Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	11
The Descent of Slapstick Paul Michael Babiak Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	15
Ideology, Performance, and Ironic Distance in Musical Slapstick Peter Edwards Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	37
Sinking and Falling Bodies: The Beginnings of Literary Slapstick in the Pre-Modern Era Carolin Struwe-Rohr Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	53
Part II: Instruments of Slapstick
Introduction Alena E. Lyons and Ervin Malakaj Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	73
The Broken Mirror: From Commedia All’Improvviso to Slapstick Comedy Sebastian Hauck Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	79
Harold Lloyd and the Reappearing Hand: Disability, Embodiment, and Slapstick Courtney Andree Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	101
Wardrobe Malfunction and Slapstick Humiliation in The Lonely Island’s Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping Addie Tsai Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	121
Gazing at Slapstick with Luiza Folegatti’s Drag King Series O Deleite da Mulher Barbada Alena E. Lyons Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	139
Part III: Narrative Structures of Slapstick
Introduction Alena E. Lyons and Ervin Malakaj Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	161
Telling and Showing: Slapstick in Stephan Schütze’s Comic Theory and Heinrich von Kleist’s Der zerbrochne Krug Alexander Kling Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	165
A Constraint-Based Approach to the Slapstick Seriality in Larry Semon Comedies, 1918–1920 Claudia Sassen and Stefan Schroeder Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	187
The Anonymized Randomness of Vicco von B.: On Chaos and Order in Loriot’s Agfa Advertisements Claudia Sassen Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	215
Part IV: Bodies of Slapstick
Introduction Ervin Malakaj and Alena E. Lyons Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	245
The Tragicomic Body: On the Relation between Tragicomedies and Slapstick Caroline Frank Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	249
‘Or Words to That Effect’: The Antimetaphysics of Slapstick Irina Hron Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	269
Gender and Jewish Difference in Early German Slapstick Valerie Weinstein Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	293
Part V: Politics of Slapstick
Introduction Ervin Malakaj and Alena E. Lyons Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	311
Slapstick Comediennes in Silent Cinema: Women’s Laughter and the Feminist Politics of Gender in Motion Maggie Hennefeld Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	315
Lubitsch’s Queer Slapstick Aesthetics Ervin Malakaj Publicly Available Download PDF	333
The Slapstick of Greater Mexico: The Poetics and Politics of Eugenio Derbez Ignacio M. Sánchez Prado Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	351
Interpersonal and Social Sensibility in Slapstick from the Perspective of Religious History Jiří Hoblík Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	367
Part VI: Sticking to the Slap: The Contact Points of Slapstick
Closing Remarks: Creating Openings Alena E. Lyons and Ervin Malakaj Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	389
Each One, Who Falls – A Conversation Anne Brannys Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	391
Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	407
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	411

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter
Audience: Scholars of Literary & Cultural Studies, Performance, Film & Media Studies, Queer Studies, Gender Studies, Disability Studies
Pages
- Front matter: 9
- Main content: 414
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 32
- Coloured Illustrations: 10
Keywords: Slapstick; Body Politics; Humor; Pain & the Comical

eBook

Published: October 25, 2021
ISBN: 9783110571981

Hardcover

Published: October 25, 2021
ISBN: 9783110570793