Comedy in a New Mood
by Paul H. and Robin Jaeckle Grawe
© ITCHS 2010
Tentative Annotated Table of Contents
Painting: "Autumn Walk" by Lisa Jaeckle
Introduction
Part I: Sombre Comedy
[The chapters in this section have been reprinted from Sombre Comedy: Comedy in a New Mood, submitted as a doctoral dissertation to Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, in 1971 by Paul Grawe. (See complete dissertation Contents.) This thesis became the basis for all of Dr. Grawe's later works in genre and comedy studies. It should be noted that this document uses the word "comic" to mean "of or pertaining to comedy." In more recent documents Grawe uses the word "comedic" for that concept, in order to distinguish between comedy (formal comedy) and humor, the humorous, or the funny (comic).]
Forward: Genre Definition: A Logical Exercise
Chapter 1: Comedy and Sombre Comedy
[This chapter establishes the definitions of comedy and sombre comedy. It includes comments on Congreve's The Way of the World, Jonson's Volpone, Molière's Tartuffe, Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors, Giraudoux's The Madwoman of Chaillot, Wilder's The Matchmaker, Hansburry's Raisin in the Sun, Miller's After the Fall, and Shaw's Major Barbara; the films Breakfast at Tiffany's and The Graduate; as well as Romantic Comedy and Satiric Comedy.]
Chapter 2: The Domain of Sombre Comedy
[In establishing the domain or range of sombre comedy, Grawe includes studies of Synge's Riders to the Sea, Lorca's Blood Wedding, Teichmann and Kaufman's Solid Gold Cadillac, Saroyan's The Time of Your Life, Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth, Beckett's Waiting for Godot, Beckett's Endgame, and Ionesco's Rhinoceros.]
Chapter 3: The Conventions and Techniques of Sombre Comedy
[In discussing the conventions and techniques of sombre comedy, Grawe includes studies of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, O’Neill’s The Iceman Cometh, Giraudoux’s Madwoman of Chaillot, Wilder’s The Skin of our Teeth, and Anouilh’s The Waltz of the Toreadors and of the films The Graduate and Breakfast at Tiffany’s.]
Chapter 4: The Metaphysical Implications of Sombre Comedy
[This chapter explores the debate over sombre comedy’s metaphysical implications among critics and playwrights, including Luigi Pirandello, Eugene Ionesco, Christopher Fry, Nathan Scott, Jr., Father William Lynch, and Nelvin Vos.]
Chapter 5: A Case in Point: The Cherry Orchard
Part II: Sombre Comedy and Humor: Essays on American Film Comedies
[The following chapters are part of Comedic Tenor, Comic Vehicle: Humor in American Film Comedy by Paul and Robin Grawe, published at ITCHS.org in 2008.]
Chapter 6: Forrest Gump: Finding the Dominant Humor Form
Chapter 7: Rain Man: The Recent Rapid Development of Comedy
Part III: Senior Comedy
Chapter 8: The Vanishing Virtual Future in Senior Comedy
Chapter 9: Grumpy Old Men, On Golden Pond, and Driving Miss Daisy:
Senior comedy and Comedic Innovation in Rapidly Changing Times
[From Comedic Tenor, Comic Vehicle: Humor in American Film Comedy, this chapter explores the use of humor in senior film comedy.]
Chapter 10: Vitalist Humor in American Senior Film Comedy
[From December Comedy: Studies in Senior Comedy and Other Essays by Robin Jaeckle Grawe published at ITCHS.org in 2009, this chapter explores the use of vitalist humor in On Golden Pond and Driving Miss Daisy.]
Chapter 11: Humor and the Comedic Restoration of Balance in
The Whales of August
[From December Comedy: Studies in Senior Comedy and Other Essays]
Part IV: Other Essays
Chapter 12: The Big Chill's Entropic Humor