A retired actress and her quirky family trap four guests in elaborately woven games in Noel Coward’s Hay Fever. Within the concept of “playing house,” the glamour of Coward’s work lives on through scenery, costumes, and lighting, while his quirkier side is highlighted in hopes of making his Comedy of Manners accessible to a new audience.

While most critics agree that Anton Chekhov is a funny writer and much critical commentary about his comedic techniques identifies how Chekhov is humorous, none examines why readers find him so. Using the tools of cognitive science, this paper explores the cognitive processes behind humor and narrative, as well as Chekhov’s exploitation of them for comical effect in his early short stories – namely the very concise and blatantly humorous “Kids,” “Grisha,” “Vanka,” and “At Home” – and uncovers, in these early writings, the origins of his celebrated and oft-imitated authorial legacy.

In this paper, I will cover the step by step process of making my thesis film, Dantalion. These steps include writing, directing, production design, makeup, cinematography, editing, and sound. I will primarily focus on the pre-production work done for each one of these departments and how it affected the outcome of the finished film. I will then evaluate the outcome to determine the success of the project.

One of the most important parts in the development stage of filmmaking is writing a screenplay. Weeb‐Con is a thirty‐two‐page action comedy screenplay. After an anime convention in Galveston, Texas, is forcefully taken over by armed robbers in creepy, badlymade fursuits, it is up to Dolores “Dolly” Lopez, a Lolita who must lead the convention attendees ‐ including her family and her fat pitbull Butterball ‐ and make them band together. Dolly is something of a perfectionist loner; but, with the help of her new friends Seymour, a cowardly nerd, and Boyd, a stoner who is smarter than he looks, she will be able to learn about the importance of friendship and working together and save everyone.

Comedy is an inherently pleasurable phenomenon with beneficial psychological functions, but its potential to bring on undesirable and socially destabilizing consequences is less intuitively obvious. In this essay, I argue that one of the hitherto under-recognized features of William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice is its covert problematization of the phenomenon of comedy itself, and that the play invites its audience to become more aware of in what situations laughter is constructive and appropriate. I apply psychological and cultural-historical theories of humor— specifically, Freudian relief theory and Bakhtinian thought on laughter and festivity—as a framework for interpreting the play, with a particular emphasis on the secondary protagonist called Gratiano. I argue that Gratiano serves as a personification of comedy, whose function is to problematize it and demonstrate its positive as well as negative attributes in relation to seriousness and restraint. Gratiano’s laughter-inducing antics compel audience members to sympathize with him in the dialectic which Shakespeare sets up between him and other characters, but the play also portrays his jovial behavior as concomitant with less desirable traits which his comedy successfully obscures. While the character presents comedy as attractive and instinctively preferable to propriety and decorum, he also shows how the allure of laughter and comedy may be used by disingenuous actors to provide an attractive veneer for immoral or abhorrent behavior.

Thesis advisor: Bonnie S., PhD Jefferson / This paper examines the parallels between the situation comedies, The Golden Girls and Sex and the City. These shows possess striking similarities in their character portrayals and both emphasize the sisterly relationships of their characters. Using representative episodes, this paper illustrates that The Golden Girls and Sex and the City belong to the same unique subgenre of sitcoms that involve the non-traditional family formed by close female friends. In addition to criticism by genre, this paper also analyzes The Golden Girls and Sex and the City for each show’s individual manifestations of and implications for feminism. This study observes that the messages communicated by these shows are significant on their own, but are magnified when conveyed through repetition dictated by membership in a genre. Comparative analysis of The Golden Girls and Sex and the City intersects genre criticism and feminist criticism, creating a situational feminism that transcends entertainment with its social implications. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2010. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Communication Honors Program. / Discipline: Communication .

Thesis advisor: William Stanwood / The Daily Show with Jon Stewart's ascendance into the mainstream consciousness has reached a point where many not only consider it to be a source of news, but also Stewart to be one of the most respected and important journalists in the country. This study investigated The Daily Show’s impact on the general public using the theoretical framework of agenda-setting. After grounding the study in existing scholarly research, data, content and textual analyses were performed on 12 Daily Show episodes, as well as data analysis on the corresponding network news broadcasts. It was then concluded that The Daily Show has no significant impact on what people think about no matter what variables were analyzed. Thus, Stewart likely has been right all along in his claim that he and his team are not journalists – rather, they are merely producing a comedy show that happens to involve news and parodies news broadcasts. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: College Honors Program. / Discipline: Communication Honors Program. / Discipline: Communication.

Esta dissertação tem como objetivo examinar o método de composição das comédias de Sá de Miranda e a maneira como o autor utilizou o processo de recriação poética denominado imitatio para promover o diálogo intertextual com seus paradigmas. Trata-se aqui de analisar intertextualmente textos gerados dentro de um contexto histórico-literário específico, em que o imitar era a regra. O autor tem como primeira intenção ao compor esse tipo de obra inserir-se numa tradição poética que aceita e pressupõe a alusão a textos precedentes, ou seja, uma tradição poética autônoma, em que as relações intertextuais se dão de maneira consciente e técnica e a obra de imitação resulta da reelaboração criativa de modelos. O primeiro capítulo vem situar a obra cômica mirandina no contexto histórico-cultural em que foi gerada. O segundo capítulo trata de imitatio e intertextualidade, estabelecendo terminologia e métodos para a análise intertextual, especificamente, de obras que têm a apropiação intencional de textos como princípio de criação literária. O terceiro capítulo apresenta um breve histórico do teatro latino, das origens até o surgimento da fabula palliata, adaptação latina da Comédia Nova Grega, que foi o modelo de comédia imitado pelos poetas renascentistas italianos, cujas obras se tornaram também paradigmas para o poeta português. O último capítulo é dedicado à análise intertextual das comédias de Sá de Miranda. / The objective of this dissertation is to examine the method of composition of Sá de Miranda?s comedies and the way the author made use of the poetic recreation process denominated imitatio to promote the intertextual dialogue with their paradigms. It concerns to the intertextual analysis of texts produced within a specific historical and literary context in which imitating was the rule. The author who composes literary works under this rule has as his first intention to get into a poetic tradition which accepts and presupposes the alusion to preceding texts, i. e., an autonomous poetic tradition in which the intertextual relations take place in a conscious and technical manner and the work of imitation results of the creative re-elaboration of the patterns. The first chapter comes to situate Sá de Miranda?s comic work in the historical and cultural context in which it was generated. The second chapter deals with imitatio and intertextuality, establishing terminology and methodology for intertextual analysis of specifically literary works which have the intentional appropriation of texts as literary creation principle. The third chapter presents a brief history of the Roman theater, from its origins up to the arising of the fabula palliata, the Roman adaptation of the Greek New Comedy, which was the model of comedy imitated by the Italian poets of the Renaissance, whose works became paradigms to the Portuguese poet too. The last chapter is dedicated to the intertextual analysis of Sá de Miranda?s Comedy.

A relação do cinema com outras linguagens e outras artes tem despertado grande interesse em novos trabalhos de pesquisa no âmbito da pós-graduação, e se insere no interior de uma pluralidade de posturas de investigação adotadas a partir dos anos 1980 acerca do espaço fílmico. Partindo da relação entre arquitetura/urbanismo e cinema, este trabalho se constitui numa interação de linguagens dinâmicas, tomando por princípio a polissemia dos interesses estéticos e das formas artísticas atuais. A escolha de nosso objeto de pesquisa, Playtime (Tempo de diversão, 1967) do cineasta Jacques Tati (1907-1982) nasceu do interesse em tratar uma questão central na experiência do cinema francês, qual seja seu diálogo crítico com a mudança de sensibilidade cultural provocada pela arquitetura e urbanismo modernos. A demanda gerada pela inserção criativa do cinema na reflexão sobre a sociedade e a cultura é correlata a uma vontade de questionar a arquitetura como instância de poder e representação, privilegiando a qualidade de interação entre pessoas e grupos sociais na vida urbana. O foco de análise, ao desvelar a realidade proposta, visa entender a relação entre obra e público numa busca de atualização das discussões entre arte e sociedade. / The relation between cinema and other forms of expression, as well as other kinds of art, has raised great interest among academic research, especially post-graduation studies, as part of a variety of investigative approaches to the subject of filmmaking from the 1980s onwards. Based on the relation between architecture/urbanism and cinema, this work focuses on the interaction of dynamic forms of expression, taking into account the polysemic context under which aesthetic interests and artistic forms operate. The choice of the object of study, the film Playtime (Tempo de diversão, 1967) by French filmmaker Jacques Tati (1907-1982), was due to address a central issue in the French cinema experience, namely its critical view in the dialogue with the cultural sensitivity changes caused by modern architecture and urbanism. Cinema became an important topic in the discussion of society and culture, as a means to question the role of architecture as an instance of power and representation, as opposed to the quality of interaction between individuals and social groups in urban life. The focus of the analysis, by uncovering the proposed truth of the film, aims to understand the relation between work and audience in a search for renewing the discussion of art and society.

A dissertação pretende-se uma contribuição para o estudo poético da Comédia Antiga, analisando o emprego das convenções do gênero na peça As Rãs e traduzindo-a de modo a tornar visíveis essas questões em português. Todos os elementos formais da Comédia Antiga (estrutura, enredo, personagens, elocução, versificação e espetáculo) parecem se definir por três aspectos: fisicalidade, acumulação e descontinuidade. Dessa combinação nasce o efeito próprio da Comédia Antiga: as sensações de pertencimento, liberdade e realização. Na Ática dos séculos V e IV a.C, outra função da Comédia Antiga era comentar e influenciar a política da cidade. A ação da comédia não é composta por estritas relações de causa e efeito e a coerência do todo só pode ser entendida ao observar a correlação de temas e imagens que permeiam a peça e podem ser percebidos sobretudo na parábase e nas repetições de termos de mesma raiz ou mesmo campo semântico. N\'As Rãs predominam os temas do bom nascimento, da virtude moral e da poesia, cujas interrelações são exploradas pelo poeta. Aristófanes parece sacrificar algo da satisfação cômica para fortalecer o teor exortativo da peça, que incentiva a escolha de boas lideranças, o fim das disputas civis e a paz com os peloponésios. Por fim, analisam-se traduções em português de Aristófanes e propõe-se como tornar visíveis em português as características formais do gênero identificadas na primeira parte da dissertação. / This dissertation intends to contribute to the study of the poetics of Ancient Comedy. It analyses how the play Frogs employs generic conventions, and presents a translation into Portuguese, so that readers who have no knowledge of Ancient Greek can access the debate. All formal elements in Ancient Comedy (structure, plot, characters, elocution, metre and spectacle) seem to be defined by three aspects: physicality, accumulation and discontinuity. Out of the conjunction of these traits emerges Ancient Comedy\'s distinctive effect: the feeling of connection, freedom, fulfilment and satisfaction. Another function of fifth and early fourth-century Attic Comedy was to comment and influence Athens\' politics. The plot of Ancient Comedy is not strictly organical, and its coherence relies on the pervasive themes and images of a play, which make themselves known especially in the parabasis and the reiteration of words with similar stems and meaning. In Frogs, these themes are good birth, moral virtue and poetry, which Aristophanes interconnects. The poet seems to sacrifice a little of comic satisfaction in order to stress the exhortative character of the play, which recommends the choice of good leaders and the end of both civil strife and war against the Peloponnesians. At last, the dissertation analyses translations of Aristophanes\' plays into Portuguese, and proposes how the traits identified in the first part can be made visible in Portuguese.