Comic Techniques Research Articles

‘The pinnacle of our era’: comedy in Stan Lai’s realism play ‘The Village’

In 2008, Chinese playwright, director Stan Lai, and producer Wang Weizhong created the play ‘The Village’ based on over a hundred oral history stories. This play is a work of realist theatre that incorporates many comedic elements and has been hailed by the Beijing News as the ‘pinnacle of our era’. However, current academic attention to this play is primarily limited to studies focusing on nostalgia and historical context, with insufficient emphasis on its comedic aspects. This study aims to analyze the comedy in ‘The Village’ using Kant’s comedic theory and Chekhov’s comedic techniques, examining the comedic aspects through the play’s comedy plots. It intends to confirm its comedic nature and fill a gap in the existing comedy research on this work. This study also explores Stan Lai’s unique comedic style in ‘The Village’, enhancing the understanding of its comedic elements. Furthermore, the findings will contribute to the existing body of knowledge on Stan Lai’s work and expand the application of Kant’s Theory of Comedy.

A Penny for His Thoughts? Socrates “the Sophist” and the Problem of Payment in the Clouds

ABSTRACT: In this paper, I argue against the prevailing view that Aristophanes in the Clouds characterizes Socrates as a “sophistic” teacher-for-pay. To do so, I reexamine the play’s five potential references to teaching payments—Strepsiades’ description of the Thinkery (98–99), his offer of a wage (245–249), the Clouds’ exhortation to Socrates (804–812), a joke about Hyperbolus (874–876), and the “honor” that Socrates receives from Strepsiades (1146–1147)—within the framework of Aristophanes’ comic technique. I demonstrate that Aristophanes, particularly in the sections of the play most significant for the characterization of Socrates (126–509 and 627–803), portrays Socrates not as a venal teacher looking to take advantage of his students but as an impractical intellectual who has no concern for money.

Visual Rhetoric and Spatial Sovereignty in Gord Hill’s The 500 Years of Resistance Comic Book

Abstract: This article offers a close analysis of the interventionary visual rhetoric and comic techniques in The 500 Years of Resistance Comic Book by Gord Hill (Kwakwaka’wakw). It positions Hill’s comic book as an act of discursive resistance that challenges imagery and narratives of colonial history using the affordances of comic arts. As a multimodal genre, as an audience-directed educational text, and as an account of warriorhood, The 500 Years of Resistance Comic Book is an important contribution to Indigenous studies.

"БЕДНЫЕ-НЕСЧАСТНЫЕ" Й. ЛАНТИМОСА: ФАУСТ В КУКОЛЬНОМ ГОРОДЕ

Y. Lanthimos’s Poor Things combines a thriller about a mad scientist and a palliata-inspired comedy of swaps. It is proved that apart from the general biopunk aesthetics, the assembly of the movie is carried out for the first time by this director through the introduction of the retcon (retroactive continuity) principle. At each new turn of the plot we encounter figurative thinking, varying the teachings of psychoanalysis about the afterwardsness (Nachträglichkeit), sustainability. Comic motifs are embedded in a situation of substituted consciousness, where the sea is realized as enclosed and the house as an open space. The heroine’s corporeality in the Parisian episodes turns out to be the most universal figure of her being; she has already learned to lock and unlock her own body, thanks to which she can restart all the plots, realizing the retroactivity of her very being. The heroine acts as an ideal magical guest, reorganizing also the posthumous existence of her creator. Lanthimos creates a new type of thriller as a philosophy of hospitality, exposed through the retroactive application of comedic techniques

Comic techniques as the means of transmitting negative evaluation in the English-language online movie reviews

Comic techniques as the means of transmitting negative evaluation in the English-language online movie reviews

Художественное своеобразие романа А. Кампаниле «Так что же такое любовь?»

The article presents an analysis of the first novel by A. Campanile “What is love?” (1927). A. Campanile is a little-known Italian writer-comedian in Russia, whose work has not been sufficiently studied in Italian and foreign literary criticism. The novel “What is love?” is not translated into Russian. In Italy, the novel was a great success, even though the comic tradition at that time was not well developed, critics did not take humorous works seriously. The purpose of this work is to comprehend the role and significance of the author’s heritage in the history of Italian and world literature, consider humorous techniques and analyze the comic technique in A. Campanile’s novel “What is love?” The main methodological basis of the study is a combination of historical-literary, historical-cultural, and comparative methods. The materials presented in the article allow us to conclude that the novel “What is love?” does not have the structure of a traditional novel. The main comic techniques include the disruption of the communication process between the characters, absurd characterizations, the technique of shifting and thickening (Z. Freud). The writer’s passion for mixing styles, montage writing technique testifies to Campanile’s predilection for experimental literature. The text is distinguished by the montage technique of the composition. The writer achieves a comic effect not only through paradox, word play, illogicality, but also through the novel’s unconventional form, structure violation, useless inserts and remarks.

The Year’s Work in American Humor Studies, 2021

The Year’s Work in American Humor Studies, 2021

Пьерик Сорен. Комедия в видеоарте

The article reveals the genre-stylistic specificity of artworks of the French video artist Pierrick Sorin, created between the 1980s and the 2020s. It studies the methods and techniques characteristic of P. Sorin’s work, particular attention being paid to his use of comic techniques. The novelty of the research lies in the consideration of P. Sorin’s creative work as an integral artistic system in its development. The relevance of the present study is determined by the need to expand ideas about the principles of shaping and the features of drama in the genres of contemporary art. The article shows that P. Sorin developed the techniques and methods of video art in an original and spectacular way. Out of the creative methods used by the artist, the author of the article focuses on the following ones: the attraction of expressive means of other arts (cinema, circus, music hall, variety theatre, etc.) and the combination of modern technical and technological solutions with the style of comedy films, buffoonery, and clowning, which is manifested in the plots, expressive means, the specifics of the characters. The classification of P. Sorin’s works proposed by the author includes video art, optical theatres (miniature installations), stage performances and scenographic works. The author comes to the following conclusions: the plot structure of P. Sorin’s works, depending on the genre, includes miniature scenes-sketches, parody films that repeat scenario designs of the originals, and series of sketches combined in a holistic performance by means of recapitulation. In his scenographic works, P. Sorin creates a comic discourse, a play with the viewer based on technical attractions. The comic techniques characteristic of P. Sorin’s work are: comic absurdity, illogical or impossible combination of elements, the method of inconsistency, the method of unexpected, repetition, and the use of taboo topics.

PARAPHRASES AND PARALLELS IN THE 1917–1918 FEUILLETONS BY A. V. AMFITEATROV

The article focuses on the poetic devices that are a part of the artistic system of A. V. Amfiteatrov, a well-known publicist and prose writer, a leading feuilletonist of the early 20th century. The subject of the study is his feuilletons of the post-Revolution period published in Russia until August 1918. The paper reveals the political stance of the publicist on the revolutionary events of 1917, his attitude to the February and October revolutions. The paper provides an overview of the themes and plots of Amfiteatrov’s printed speeches of this period — these are the responses to socio-political events and social issues. Further, the paper analyzes specific examples of rhetorical devices from his articles — direct parallels, paraphrases, deliberate citation of works of classical literature. The author’s artistic and ideological goal-setting paradigms are traced; the critical attitude of the author to the post-revolutionary reality that emerges through comic techniques is revealed. The main sources of paraphrases and parallels for Amphiteatrov are, first of all, satirical works from Russian classical literature — N. V. Gogol, M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin; as well as G. I. Uspensky, A. P. Chekhov and L. N. Tolstoy, M. Gorky. He extrapolates the quotes and specific situations from these texts onto contemporary reality. The article also provides unknown biographical facts related to the life and work of the publicist in 1917–1918.

Phenomenon of the Regional Sense of humor in the Tuscan Poetry

The article considers the phenomenon of the national Tuscan sense of humour and the influence of local mentality on the poetry of the region. Quotes from the pieces of Guittone D’Arezzo, Rustico di Filippo, Dante Alighieri, Lorenzo de’ Medici, Francesco Berni and other authors of various periods, from the 13th to the 20th century, demonstrate in chronological order which part the specific Florentine irony takes in the process of formation, development and transformation of the Italian comic verse (or realistic verse). This genre arose not only as a poetical method but also as a reaction to the social and political situation. Comparative analysis of the poems allows us to follow the evolution of the Florentine poetic tradition and draw the conclusion about the cyclical nature of the literature process, confirmed by the regular return to the debunking of excessive tragedy in Italian poetry by the comic verse. In addition, the article reveals the common features of comic verse of different historical periods, which consist in the similarity not only of themes and motives but also of comic techniques based on the characteristic sceptical view of the life of Tuscans.

ANALYSIS OF HUMOR LANGUAGE IN “NGENEST THE MOVIE” COMEDY SCENE

Humor language is verbal humor created through words, the meaning of words, and jargon. Directors use language humor to build comedy scenes, introduce the characters, or give the impression of a scene. However, sometimes, excessive techniques will be insufficient for the scene itself. Therefore, this study aims to find how language humor in comedy scenes in a film is overused and eventually dries the comedy. Research material was selected from a comedy movie entitled "Ngenest," produced in 2015, directed by Ernest Prakasa, who has a comical background and often uses comedic techniques in his films. The research method chosen is qualitative, with content analysis to identify the value of integrated humor and scenes in the movie "Ngenest.”
 
 Keywords: humor, humor language, scene, comedy

Franz Kafka in the Comic. Description of some Examples

Franz Kafka is considered to be the author of literature that is difficult to read, the value of which is recognized mainly by a narrow circle of experts. However, looking at some aspects of contemporary and popular culture, and especially the presence of Kafka's works in comics, one needs to verify the traditional belief in the elitism of this prose. David Zane Mairowitz (1943-) published in 1993, together with the cartoonist Robert Crumb, the graphic book “Kafka for Beginners”, in some editions known as “Introducing Kafka”. As for the Mairowitz / Cramb graphic book, it contains several graphic components: comic adaptations of some of Kafka's most famous works, including the stories “The Metamorhosis”, “The Penal Colony” or “The Judgment”, as well as briefly listed plots of three novels: “The America”, “The Trial” and “The Castle”. In the work of Mairowitz / Cramb, we also find the most important biographical facts of Kafka, which are partly illustrated with an academic essay, and partly with comic-like frames with sequences of biographical events given in text frames. The success of publishing houses with a comic presentation of fragments of Kafka's works prompted David Zane Mairowitz to develop the text for the graphic novel entitled “The Castle” (2013), based on the novel of the same name. The author of the drawings for this publication was the Czech artist and musician Jaromír Švejdík, using the pseudonym Jaromír 99. Mairowitz and Jaromir's a composition is another act of establishing Kafka's work in the world of comics. In “The Castle”, however, the variety of comic techniques was limited to a monochrome form of drawing and paper cutouts. The presence of Kafka in comics results from the inclusive nature of popular culture, whose authors are able to use for their own purposes the sublime art of modern prose. As a result, Kafka's work becomes a sign of the times of modernism, an image of the phenomena of human alienation in the reality of state offices or corporate systems.

The Comedy of Human Nature in Terence's Heautontimorumenos

"Terentian humanism" has been undergoing a cautious rehabilitation. This paper contributes to its reevaluation by identifying a comic technique in Heautontimorumenos, the inept interpretation of human nature. The characters of the play spend much of their time trying to read human nature; they are, however, usually wrong.

“You make everything into a joke”: the forward-looking feminism of Elaine Dundy and Barbara Pym

ABSTRACT This article considers two popular novels of the 1950s, Barbara Pym's Excellent Women (1952) and Elaine Dundy's The Dud Avocado (1958), whose sophisticated comic and satiric techniques exemplify overlooked forms of feminist creative and intellectual labor within the post-war years, while also anticipating contemporary modes of feminist comedy. Though the novels seem at first to reflect common stereotypes around single women, their narrators’ strategic use of self-deprecation and satire undercuts those initial impressions and challenges assumptions regarding not only single women but romance and sexuality more broadly. In addition, Pym and Dundy counter a typical understanding of self-deprecation as uniformly reinforcing a patriarchal view of women, instead offering a new conception of the mode's feminist potential. Finally, by situating these texts within a satiric tradition, my reading expands an understanding of satire to one that better incorporates the historically more subtle and sympathy-driven work of female novelists.

E-Komik Hikayat Patani: Putera Pewaris Kerajaan (Satu Analisis Tekstual, Kepentingan dan Cabaran)

In the era of globalization, physical comics have undergone a transformation from being available in a printed format to the e-comics production that are accessible online. However, e-comic-related studies are still limited. Looking at this gap, this study is conducted on the e-comic, Hikayat Patani: Putera Pewaris Kerajaan, published by Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP). This study involved three main analyses, namely on the text, importance and challenges. The textual analysis uses five comic principles introduced by Hall in his writing Five Essential Principles of Comics and Cartooning. A library research, meanwhile, was conducted to identify the importance of e-comic and challenges. The analysis in textual aspect results found that the e-comic fulfils all the five comic principles by Hall. This shows that the e-comics have a high quality. In fact, the created illustrations are filled with abundant aspects of Malay identity and not be influenced by any other form of comic technique while presenting the content using an interesting storyline. The e-comic may be indicated as vital to attract the youth generation to learn about the traditional text of Hikayat Patani and the history of the Patani state while becoming a tool in fostering the interest among the younger generation to read and acquire knowledge. However, poor internet network, low chapter production and high cost of producing e-comics are challenges which must be overcome. Thus, this study find it is important to produce more e-comics based on historical sources or traditional texts so that the nation's civilization may continue to be preserved. Keywords: E-comic, Hikayat Patani: Putera Pewaris Kerajaan, textual, importance, challenges.

On Second Thought

On Second Thought

Notes toward an untimely Soviet comedy: Eisenstein’s MMM

ABSTRACT Between 1932 and 1933, in the context of a new mandate for cheerfulness in Soviet cinema, Sergei Eisenstein, recently returned from a frustrating sojourn abroad, undertook an exercise in genre: the beguilingly titled comedy MMM. The project, which was never completed, has been almost completely overlooked in studies of the director’s works. Against this tendency of Eisenstein scholarship, this paper presents MMM as a serious and highly developed experiment in genre, using archival material – including notes, screenplays, director’s scripts and drawings – to read the work as an expression of Eisenstein’s cinematic process at its most formally inventive and ideologically intricate. The script, composed entirely in verse, is the director’s only fully-conceived attempt at film comedy. It follows a sprawling series of incongruous historical encounters as visitors from medieval Rus’ materialise in contemporary Moscow. The absurd fantasia that ensues is not only Eisenstein’s attempt to probe an increasingly ideologically unstable Soviet reality, but is also his occasion to explore, through self-reflexive comedic techniques, the nature and limits of the cinematic medium, as well as the theoretical question of the mutability of static form and the implications of this conundrum for character, narrative and genre.

Функциональность приёмов комизма в романе Григория Служителя «Дни Савелия»

We investigate the comic as a special artistry mode, which consists in identifying at the compositional level the structural functionality of comic techniques when depicting the “inconsis-tency of the world order” on the example of the novel by G.M. Sluzhitel “The Days of Savely” with the help of characters playing their roles and changing role masks to show the relativity of everything in the world, except for the absoluteness of love as the most important category of eternity. We show that in the novel “The Days of Savely” various types of comic are used: direct and hidden mockery, laughter symbolism of details, stylization and fusion of various vocabulary layers, intertextual inclusions, new interpretation of precedent phenomena, etc. We substantiate the concept that the functionality of comic techniques in the work of Grigory Sluzhitel is extensive. The most important functions of the comic are: the ubiquitous images characterization; identifying the main “core” of the protagonist character and other heroes of the novel; interpretation of the events taking place in the “The Days of Savely” through the prism of the “wise child” perception – Savva cat; determining or predicting the fate of characters; expression of the author’s worldview, formulation of the work main idea; determination of the relativity of earthly life by playing various images in comparison with them.

HERMENEUTICS OF THE RIDICULOUS IN FICTION

The hermeneutic analysis of the comic in the text is not identical with the reconstruction and revealing of the set of comic techniques, the restoration of the context and historical connotations of the work, but reveals its own ontological intention. On the example of a fragment of one of the classic humorous texts of culture, the article reveals the mismatch of ideas about the ridiculous as a substantial characteristic of the text itself or a purely psychological attitude of a person. The hermeneutics of the text reveals that the comic effect for the viewer (reader) is not a consequence of knowledge of the language features and the context of the expressions used. Laughter as a spectacle is revealed through the optics of understanding of the hermeneutic game, where the position of the interpreter and the object of understanding form the possibility of merging different horizons and discovering new meanings, laughing aspects. The hermeneutic meaning of the humorous in the literary text is revealed through its middle place of birth between the positions of subjectivity and objectivity in a peculiar hermeneutical game, which plays the hidden meanings of being as its own stake. A hermeneutical reading of the experience of the comic reveals its connection with the general attitudes of understanding the meaning and ontological nature of this experience.

Comic Technique and Characterization in Eugene O’Neill’s Ah, Wilderness!

Comic Technique and Characterization in Eugene O’Neill’s Ah, Wilderness!