MONASH UNIVERSITY FACULTY HANDBOOKS

Arts Undergraduate Handbook 1996

Authorised by Academic Registrar, April 1996

CLS2510

Wit and humour in literature, film and cartoon

Alba Romano

Synopsis This subject is divided into two parts. The first will study theories of wit and humour from antiquity to the present: Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Descartes, Kant, Freud, Bergson and other contemporary thinkers. The second will study the practice of wit and humour both in literary genres such as comedy, satire, parody, where they are essential, and in genres such as historiography and oratory, where they are auxiliary. Finally, wit and humour will be analysed in films and cartoons.

Assessment Written (4000 words): 50% + Examinations (2 hours): 50%

Prescribed texts

• Ionesco Rhinoceros, The Chairs, The Lesson Penguin
• Jonson B Three comedies ed. M Jamieson, Penguin
• Lawson H Joe Wilson's mates Penguin
• Molière The Miser Penguin
• Plautus The Pot of Gold Penguin
• Rabelais The histories of Gargantua and Pantagruel Penguin
• Williamson D The Sons of Cain Currency Press, 1985