107-094 Comedy, Cult and the Carnivalesque

Note

Availability

Credit Points

Coordinator

Prerequisites

Admission to fourth year Honours in Cinema Studies see Honours Entry

Semester

Contact

Subject Description

This subject will focus on approaches to and definitions of the comedy and cult in film and television (keeping in mind the flexible and indefinable nature of both these forms), with particular focus on the carnivalesque aspects of both forms. Areas to be explored will include: early film comedy; comedian comedy; sitcoms and female comics; characteristics and definitions of the cult text; South American cinema and the carnivalesque. In particular, students will be expected to consider various interpretative issues centring around these two forms - comedy and cult - including: the ability of comedy and cult to violate generic boundaries and rupture classical narrative form; pleasures of comedy and cult; the carnivalesque and liminality; comedy and the grotesque; the cultish nature of bad taste films (the films of John Waters, low budget monster films from the 40s-50s, serial films, Ed Wood classics); and cult, ritual and the cult spectator.

Assessment

Written work which may comprise classpapers, essays or take-home exams totalling 5000 words.

Prescribed Texts

A subject reader will be available.