The Oxford Handbook of Screen Comedy

The Oxford Handbook of Screen Comedy offers a rich sampling of the most current research and evolving trends in a vast and growing field-the study of humor and comedy in movies, television, streaming content, social media, and other forms of mediated comedy. The thirty new essays in this volume, written by leading scholars and emerging researchers, are guideposts to where the field is now and where it is heading.

By its very nature, comedy eludes definition and crosses boundaries. Trying to grab the wriggling creature and subject it to analysis presents special challenges. The contributors featured in this volume apply a range of methods to analyse case histories, interpret trends, and theorize the changing face of comedy. Some celebrate the diverse pleasures of laughter; some critique its more nefarious practices and warn of salient dangers. Together, they bring insights from feminist, black, and queer studies, focus on issues of identity and ideology, extend and revise notions of historical development, and follow the emergence and migration of comic forms in Latin America, China, North Korea, and South Africa. The broad aim of this book is to increase awareness of these exciting studies and inspire more productive exploration as the field continues to grow.

Peter C. Kunze is Assistant Professor of Communication at Tulane University, where he teaches courses in film history, media industry studies, and media aesthetics and analysis. He is the author of Staging a Comeback: Broadway, Hollywood, and the Disney Renaissance and editor of several volumes, including Conversations with Maurice Sendak and The Films of Wes Anderson: Critical Essays on an Indiewood Icon.

William V. Costanzo is a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of English and Film who has taught writing, literature, and film courses since 1970. He has published seven books on topics ranging from writing and computers to world cinema and film genres, including World Cinema through Global Genres and When the World Laughs: Film Comedy East and West. He is currently an active member of The Society of Cinema Studies and the International Society for Humor Studies