ENG220H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Oh Hell
Document Summary
Shakespeare is not slapstick comedy exactly, though it does have it sometimes, but its focus is rooted in earlier traditions. Northrup frye"s theory of myths o o o o. Symbolic suspension or inversion of social order. Comedy, in aristotle"s view, is that it had roots in festivals that also boiled into a parodic inversion of the social order, a celebration of excess. About change and renewal, but unlike tragedy that moves towards death and finality, it has a sense of comedic upturning of prevailing truths. Comedies play out a narrative of renewal and rebirth, of victory over authority, desire over law, youth over age, wit over power, similar to contemporary romantic comedies. Not simply an overturning, it is subversive but it is a reestablishment of order, channelling anarchic desire into sanctioned bonds, the rebellious lovers are married, and the cycle begins again.
