Description
Book SynopsisThis critical intervention in the study of the comic seeks to investigate how the comic act is also an expressive and performative philosophical act that precedes philosophical conceptualisation. The book puts Bergson, philosophy and the body at the centre of its investigation, and uses these elements to explore five different aspects of the field, from the history and philosophy of comedy, to film, psychoanalysis and the comic performance of the future. Through this, the volume develops a theoretical and practice-based framework and is a valuable resource for students, scholars and practitioners alike in the fields of philosophy, performance studies and comedy studies, among others.
List of Contributors: Caterina Angela Agus, Fred Dalmasso. Lisabeth During, Xavier Escribano, Giovanni Fusetti, Davide Giovanzana, Josephine Gray, María J. Ortega Máñez, Meg Munford, Jean-Michel Rabaté, Carolyn Shapiro, Lisa Trahair
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1. Comedy: Towards an Alternative History of Mimesis, by María J. Ortega Máñez
Chapter 2. The Two Laughters of Lecoq: The Clown and the Bouffon, by Caterina Angela Agus, Giovani Fusetti and Davide Giovanzana
Chapter 3. The Masked Comic Figure in Alain Badiou’s Philosophy, by Fred Dalmasso
Chapter 4. The Body that Laughs and Cries: Helmuth Plessner’s Keys to Anthropology and Theatre, by Xavier Escribano
Chapter 5. Valentin, Brecht and Comic Inelasticity: Ridiculing Rigidity as an Impediment to Social Change, by Meg Mumford
Chapter 6. Happiness, Dead and Alive: Object Theatre as Philosophy of the Encounter, by Carolyn Shapiro
Chapter 7. Living in the Doll House: Cavell, Comedy and The Ladies Man, by Lisa Trahair
Chapter 8. Trouble in Paradise?: Impotence and Comedy, by Lisabeth During
Chapter 9. “Only What Is Born Lives”: Kafka L.O.L., by Jean-Michel Rabaté
Chapter 10. The Grotesque: Comic Performance and the Paradox of Acting, by Josephine Gray
About the Authors
