Readings

Required Texts

[A] = Buy at Amazon Aristophanes. Lysistrata and Other Plays. Addison Wesley, 2008. ISBN: 9780140448146.

[WS] = Buy at Amazon Shakespeare, William. The Comedy of Errors. 1st edition. Edited by Charles Whitworth. Oxford University Press, 2008. ISBN: 9780199536146.

[MDC] = Buy at Amazon De Cervantes, Miguel. Don Quixote. Reprint edition. Translated by Edith Grossman. Harper Perennial, 2005. ISBN: 9780060934347.

[CL] = Buy at Amazon Lennox, Charlotte. The Female Quixote: or The Adventures of Arabella. Edited by Margaret Dalziel. Oxford University Press, 2008. ISBN: 9780199540242.

[MT] = Buy at Amazon Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Dover Publications, 1994. ISBN: 9780486280615.

[JM] = Buy at Amazon McBride, James. The Good Lord Bird. Reprint edition. Riverhead Books, 2014. ISBN: 9781594632785.

[JL] = Buy at Amazon Leguizamo, John. Ghetto Klown. Illustrated by Christa Cassano and Shamus Beyale. Harry N. Abrams, 2015. ISBN: 9781419715181.

[AB] = Buy at Amazon Bechdel, Alison. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. Reprint edition. Mariner Books, 2007. ISBN: 9780618871711.

Buy at Amazon Freud, Sigmund. The Joke and Its Relation to the Unconscious. Translated by Joyce Crick. Penguin Classics, 2003. ISBN: 9780142437445.

Buy at Amazon Harris, Joseph. Rewriting: How To Do Things With Texts. Utah State University Press, 2006. ISBN: 9780874216424.

Films

Chi-Raq. 2015.

To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar. 1995.

Ghetto Klown. 2014.

Performance

Performance by NYC Drag Queen Miss Shuga Cain, entitled She’s the Man: A Drag Queen Performance (MIT's De Florez Fund for Humor)

 

SES # TOPICS READINGS
Week 1: Introduction - What's So Funny?
1-2 General introduction; basic vocabulary; course structure

No assigned readings.

Watch: Chi-Raq.
Week 2: Old Comedy
3 Aristophanes, Lysistrata

[A] pp. 131–159.
4 Lysistrata cont.

[A] pp. 160–193.
Week 3: Plautus & Shakespeare
5 Plautus, Menaechmi

Buy at Amazon Plautus. "Menaechmi." In The Comedy of Errors. 1st edition. Edited by Charles Whitworth. Oxford University Press, 2008, pp. 188–220. ISBN: 9780199536146.
6 Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors

[WS] pp. 85–130.

To prepare for Close Reading 3, read:

Buy at Amazon Harris, Joseph. "Introduction" and "Chapter 1: Coming to Terms." In  Rewriting: How To Do Things With Texts. Utah State University Press, 2006. ISBN: 9780874216424.
Week 4: Shakespeare cont.
7

The Comedy of Errors

[WS] pp. 131–180. 
8 Twelfth Night Shakespeare, William. The Twelfth Night.
Week 5: Spanish Classics
9 Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote of La Mancha

[MDC] pp. 1–102.
10 Don Quixote cont.

[MDC] pp. 103–249.
Week 6: Spanish Classics cont.
11 Don Quixote cont.

[MDC] pp. 250–352.
12 Don Quixote cont.

[MDC] pp. 353–449.
Week 7: Early Women Humor
13 Charlotte Lennox, The Female Quixote

[CL] pp. 1–100.
14 The Female Quixote, cont.

[CL] pp. 101–200.
Week 8: American Humor
15 Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

[MT] pp. 1–101.
16

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn cont.

[MT] pp. 102–220.
Week 9: American Humor cont.
17 James McBride, The Good Lord Bird

[JM] pp. 7–156.
18 The Good Lord Bird cont.

[JM] pp. 157–298.
Week 10: Women & Comedy
19 The Good Lord Bird cont.

[JM] pp. 299–458.
20 Tina Fey

Buy at Amazon Fey, Tina. Bossypants. Little Brown, 2011, pp. 3–10. ISBN: 9780316056861.
Week 11: Comic Memoir
21 Tina Fey & David Sedaris

"Act One: Papa Was Not a Rolling Stone." 104: Music Lessons. This American Life, June 5, 1998.
Week 12: Graphic Novels
22 John Leguizamo, Ghetto Klown

[JL] pp. 1–74.
23 Ghetto Klown cont.

[JL] pp. 75–121.
Week 13: Gendering the Joke
24 Ghetto Klown cont.

[JL] pp. 122–181.
25 Alison Bechdel, Fun Home [AB] pp. 1–86.
Week 14: She's the Man
26

Fun Home cont.

[AB] pp. 87–150.
27 Fun Home cont. [AB] pp. 151–232.