Loopholes: Reading Comically

221 Pages·2009·1.28 MB·English

by  John Bruns

ii The Historiography of Psychoanalysis
Introduction iii
iv The Historiography of Psychoanalysis
Copyright © 2009 by Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick, New Jersey.

A ll rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conven-
tions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by
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T his book is printed on acid-free paper that meets the American National Stan-
dard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials.

Library of Congress Catalog Number: 2008050741
ISBN: 978-1-4128-1017-3
Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bruns, John.
Loopholes : reading comically / John Bruns.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4128-1017-3 (acid-free paper) 1. Comedy—History and criti-
cism—Theory, etc. 2. Comic, The. I. Title.
PN1922.B78 2009
809'.917—dc22
2008050741
Introduction v
This book is dedicated to the memory of
my grandparents,
Lew and Lucien.
vi The Historiography of Psychoanalysis
Introduction vii
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction xi
1. Reading Comedy Comically 1
2. Laughter, Affect, and Power 21
3. Comic Perception 49
4. The Mind of Stanley Cavell: A Comedy 79
5. Get out of Gaol Free, or: How to Read a Comic Plot 97
6. Reading and Repairing the Grotesque 127
Epilogue: Last Words 163
Bibliography 189
Index 197
viii The Historiography of Psychoanalysis
Introduction ix
Acknowledgments
I am pleased to acknowledge the support and encouragement I
received while I was a graduate student at the University of Southern
California, most importantly from Judith Grant, Peter Manning, Mar-
garet Russett, and Lynn Spigel. I am grateful for the heated arguments,
casual exchanges, and lengthy conversations I’ve had with people over
the last several years. Many of these people have read parts or all of this
book with varying degrees of indifference. Those who had the courage
(or artlessness) to speak up have provided me with valuable criticism,
especially Leo Braudy, Elizabeth Brown, Arnab Chakladar, David
Eggenschwiler, Michael Frisoli, Paul Hansom, Valerie Karno, Mike
Reynolds, and Peter Stokes.
Versions of three chapters of this book have appeared in print else-
where. Chapter 2 fi rst appeared in Studies in American Humor, Special
Issue: Humor and Ethnicity in the Americas. New Series 3, No. 7 (2000),
5-24. Chapter 3 appeared in Texas Studies in Literature & Language, 47.1
(Spring 2005), 1–30. Chapter 5 appeared in Journal of Narrative Theory,
35.1 (Winter 2005), 25–59. I am grateful for permission to reprint this
copyrighted material. I presented a version of what became this book’s
epilogue to the faculty of the Program in Writing and Rhetoric at Stan-
ford University in 2005. I’d like to thank Andrea Lunsford and Marvin
Diogenes in particular for their comments. Their kindness, too, is not
forgotten. Special thanks go to Ned Schantz, who gave me invaluable
comments after reading a version of Chapter 4.
I developed and substantially revised much of this book while benefi t-
ing from the generous support of the College of Charleston. Specifi cally,
I wish to thank the Department of English, the dean of the School of
Humanities and Social Sciences, and the provost. Because of their gen-
erous fi nancial support during my fi rst year, I was able to generate the
necessary momentum that carried this project to completion. Thanks,
too, go to my colleagues—especially Chris Lamb and Joe Kelly for
their wise counsel.
ix