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Palgrave Macmillan

The Alchemy of Laughter

Comedy in English Fiction

  • Book
  • © 2000

Overview

Authors:
  1. Glen Cavaliero
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Table of contents (11 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xi
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  2. The Matter of the Work

    • Glen Cavaliero
    Pages 1-20

  3. Aspects of the Comedic Process

    • Glen Cavaliero
    Pages 21-41

  4. Parodic Comedy: the Separation of Elements

    • Glen Cavaliero
    Pages 42-60

  5. Ludic Comedy: the Dissolution of Elements

    • Glen Cavaliero
    Pages 61-83

  6. Ironic Comedy: the Conjunction of Opposites

    • Glen Cavaliero
    Pages 84-102

  7. Satirical Comedy: the Disjunction of Opposites

    • Glen Cavaliero
    Pages 103-126

  8. Subversive Comedy: the Infernal Marriage

    • Glen Cavaliero
    Pages 127-148

  9. Intellectual Comedy: the Distillation of Elements

    • Glen Cavaliero
    Pages 149-171

  10. Celebratory Comedy: the Accomplished Work

    • Glen Cavaliero
    Pages 172-196

  11. Comedic Stylistics

    • Glen Cavaliero
    Pages 197-237

  12. Epilogue: the Alchemy of Laughter

    • Glen Cavaliero
    Pages 238-245

  13. Back Matter

    Pages 246-255
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Keywords

About this book

This is the only contemporary critical study to discuss the nature of comedy with exclusive reference to novels. It examines the comic styles of novelists from Fielding and Jane Austen to Waugh and Agnus Wilson, as well as less familiar writers such as Ronald Firbank and Sylvia Townsend Warner. Distinguishing between different kinds of humour, it shows how comedy works in practice under changing literary, social and environmental conditions, and is designed to interest academic and general readers equally.

About the author

Glen Cavaliero is Fellow Commoner of St. Catherine's College and a member of the Faculty of English at the University of Cambridge.

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