IAS Laughter: Why So Serious? Laughter and Literary Studies

by Patrick Hayes (Oxford), Huw Marsh (QMUL), Julia Jordan (UCL) and Andrew Dean (UCL) Literary studies, if it is anything, is serious-minded. It is tragedy, not comedy, where the prestige lies. Does this seriousness obscure our ability to value the comic in works of art? What can the comic do? And how might the comic upset our disciplinary expectations? Three academics who have researched comic authors or comedy – Patrick Hayes (Oxford), Huw Marsh (QMUL), and Katie Fleming (QMUL) – will have a free flowing conversation on these themes. Jokes optional.