Meaning in Comedy: Studies in Elizabethan Romantic Comedy

Since their first screen appearances in the 1930s, zombies have enjoyed immense cinematic popularity. Defined by Romero’s 1968 Night of the Living Dead as mindless, violent, decaying and infectious, they successfully function as ultimate fiends in horror films. Yet, even those morbid undead started evolving into more appealing, individualized and even sympathetic characters, especially when the comic potential of zombies is explored. To allow a zombie to become a romantic protagonist, however, one that can love and be loved by a human, another evolutionary step had to be taken, one fostered by a literary association. This paper analyzes Jonathan Levine’s Warm Bodies, a 2013 film adaptation of Isaac Marion’s zombie novel inspired by William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. It examines how Shakespeare’s Romeo helps transform the already evolved cinematic zombie into a romantic protagonist, and how Shakespearean love tragedy, with its rich visual cinematic legacy, can successfully locate a zombie narrative in the romantic comedy convention. Presenting the case of Shakespeare intersecting the zombie horror tradition, this paper illustrates the synergic exchanges of literary icons and the cinematic monstrous.

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Shakespeare’s Romantic Comedy and the Social Function of Laughter

Shakespeare Review ◽

10.17009/shakes.2018.54.2.001 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 54 (2) ◽

pp. 251-281

Author(s):

KangSeokJu

Keyword(s):

Social Function ◽

Romantic Comedy ◽

The Social

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The Lady Knows the Recipe

Bulletin of Sociological Methodology/Bulletin de Méthodologie Sociologique ◽

10.1177/0759106318795219 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 140 (1) ◽

pp. 7-38

Author(s):

Alice Guilluy

Keyword(s):

Mixed Methods ◽

Data Collection ◽

Small Group ◽

Feminist Research ◽

Mixed Methods Study ◽

Feminist Methodology ◽

Romantic Comedy ◽

National Differences ◽

Phd Thesis

This article outlines the methodology of my PhD thesis, which examined the reception of contemporary Hollywood romantic comedy in Britain, France and Germany. I underline the significant epistemological and methodological shift which took place over the course of four years, as my research went from a positivist mixed-methods study aiming to describe national differences in reception, to a constructivist and qualitative interrogation of the specific pleasures of romantic comedy viewing as manifested by a small group of participants. I conclude that whilst there is no single perfect feminist methodology, doing feminist research must include a degree of self-introspection at all stages of the research, from recruitment to data collection to analysis.

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The Early Romantic Comedy of Aesthetic Disobedience

Oxford German Studies ◽

10.1080/00787191.2021.1958573 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 50 (3) ◽

pp. 350-364

Author(s):

Sigmund Jakob-Michael Stephan

Keyword(s):

Romantic Comedy

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Gothic Comedy

Twenty-First-Century Gothic ◽

10.3366/edinburgh/9781474440929.003.0014 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 189-202

Author(s):

Catherine Spooner

Keyword(s):

Twentieth Century ◽

Identity Politics ◽

First Century ◽

Right Wing ◽

Romantic Comedy ◽

Significant Function ◽

Politics Of Difference ◽

The Family ◽

Twenty First Century

Comedy has become an increasingly prevalent feature of Gothic in the twenty-first century, and thus Gothic comedy can be found across a multitude of media. This chapter surveys the kinds of comedy that appear in contemporary Gothic (such as sitcom, stand-up, romantic comedy, mock-documentary) and argues that, in the twenty-first century, Gothic comedy often functions to travesty culturally significant concepts of family, domesticity and childhood in the light of a liberal identity politics. Beginning with twentieth-century precedents such as television sitcom The Addams Family (1964–6) and Edward Gorey’s illustrations, the chapter analyses a range of contemporary texts including The League of Gentlemen (1999–2017), Corpse Bride (2005), Ruby Gloom (2006–8),Hotel Transylvania (2012) and What We Do in the Shadows (2014). It concludes that far from being frivolous or disposable, contemporary Gothic comedy forms a politically significant function in its tendency to undermine right-wing ideologies of the family and promote a celebratory politics of difference and inclusion.

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