COMEDY

14 INTRODUCTIONrelegation in the hierarchy of literary forms. In the latter part of thetwentieth century, however, certain schools of thought have developedthat have re-examined the comic in the light of its socio-cultural contextand declared it a fertile site of resistance and liberation.Having sought to establish the genealogy of comedy as an objectof intellectual scrutiny, the remainder of this study deals with broadthemes that appear and reappear across a variety of comic texts andperformances. Chapter 2 discusses the question of identity in comedyand seeks to delineate a number of popular modes of characterization,locating their origins and attempting to unpack the range of their culturaland philosophical significances. Characters such as the NativeAmerican trickster, or the medieval European figure of Folly, are shownto express contradictions in the societies from which they spring, theirmaddening, nonsensical, or outrageous behaviour the result ofcompeting cultural demands intersecting in this one figure.Extending the discussion of the previous chapter, but also limiting itsfocus to a specific issue, Chapter 3 deals with the treatment of genderand sexuality in comedy. This chapter is primarily interested in therepresentation of both orthodox and transgressive representations ofsex, gender, and the interaction of men and women. As sex is probablythe single most persistent theme in comedy—and we can also see thatcomedy has traditionally allowed the most explicit and frequentdiscussions of sex in the public arena—we shall consider how comicnarratives consistently engage in a debate about the concept of genderand the nature of desire. Drag and transvestism are recurring themeshere, and we will consider how comedies such as Shakespeare’s As YouLike It, and Billy Wilder’s 1959 film Some Like It Hot, make much ofthe potential for same-sex desire that cross-dressing occasions. By wayof contrast, it is also necessary that we consider the surlycompanionship and perpetual battle of the sexes that is marriage asrepresented by a range of postwar British situation comedies.Sexuality leads us inevitably to a consideration of the body, andChapter 4 deals with the chaotic, disruptive, and ungainly body ofcomedy, considering the extent to which comedy narrates a nightmarefantasy of the body in revolt. In this chapter there is also a discussion ofthe female body in comedy, the source of so much prurient humour,sexist remark, and cultural anxiety, attempting to outline the extent towhich the female body is considered always, in a sense, inappropriate,and imagined as a site of potential moral and social subversion. Comedyhas often worked according to the conventions of a literary traditionthat tries to tame and moderate the female body, but in performers, such