Film, Comedy, and Disability: Understanding Humour and Genre in Cinematic Constructions of Impairment and Disability

ISBN-13: 9781472455451 / Angielski / Twarda / 2018 / 196 str.

Alison Wilde

Opis

There is much to be gained from a synthesis of critical/disability studies with film studies. This groundbreaking book analyses representations of disability in comedy films, arguing that meanings of disability and impairment drawn from cinema need to be grounded in an understanding of cinematic practices and processes. A valuable framework for doing so is by recognizing the importance of genre in the production of cinematic texts and also in shaping the expectations of the audience. An understanding of genre/form and of processes of audience interpellation and viewing position are crucial to such enterprises, alongside other key cinematic issues, such as narrative analysis, cinematography, sound and mise-en-scene Disability and humour flies in the face of centuries of sentimentality and tragic portrayals, which is why it deserves scholarly attention. It is clear from disabled people s histories and criticisms of cultural representation that comedy and humour have played a major part in forming cultural attitudes towards disabled people and in shaping disabled people s images of themselves. Wilde thus grounds her analysis in film studies and the sociology of humour so as to understand comedic constructions of disability and impairment and to engage fully with the complexity of humour and polysemy. Such an enterprise is essential if we are to avoid one-dimensional or overly-optimistic explanations of the transgressive possibilities of comedy."

Spis treści

Acknowledgments; Chapter 1: Introduction; Chapter 2: Comedy and Disability; Chapter 3: Contemporary Comedy: Subjectivity, Genre, and Impairment; Chapter 4: Romantic Comedy and Disability; Chapter 5: Romantic Comedy Meets Satire: Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Lobster; Chapter 6: The Gross-Out Genre, the Farrelly Brothers, and Disability: Mapping Representational Change; Chapter 7: Conclusion, or When is an Ending not an Ending?; Bibliography; Index

O autorze

Alison Wilde is Senior Lecturer at Leeds Beckett University. Alison has written mainly on topics of screen media, disability, gender, and audiences, in addition to researching and publishing on disability and educational inclusion, parenting, gender, social care, and health care. She co-founded the MeCCSA Disability Studies Network, and the BSA's Disability Studies group.