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  2. What's So Funny? [HMN3010]

Faculty of Education and Arts

School: Communications and Arts

This unit information may be updated and amended immediately prior to semester. To ensure you have the correct outline, please check it again at the beginning of semester.

  • Unit Title

    What's So Funny?

  • Unit Code

    HMN3010

  • Year

    2015

  • Enrolment Period

    1

  • Version

    1

  • Credit Points

    15

  • Full Year Unit

     N

  • Mode of Delivery

    On Campus

Description

This unit examines laughter as an essential component of cultural production and human experience through the study of philosophical, literary, visual and filmic texts. Students investigate the way in which throughout history different forms of comedy, such as the bawdy, the absurd and the comedy of manners, reflect the society in which they are produced. This unit examines the relationships between aesthetics and ethics, asking how and why some texts are funny, and the way marginal cultural identities can both use humour to establish cultural agency, and be used by humour to become the butt of the joke.

Equivalent Rule

Unit was previously coded TRN3010

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit students should be able to:

  1. Apply theories of laughter and comedy to the analysis of texts.
  2. Discuss the ways in which the comic is historically determined.
  3. Evaluate texts in terms of the ethics of laughter.
  4. Identify and analyse different comic modes in texts.

Unit Content

  1. Comedy of manners in historical contexts, including formal and political issues of satire, parody and farce in written and filmic texts.
  2. Contemporary developments of self-reflexive and cringe comedy through the sit-com, visual art and film.
  3. Primary theoretical texts regarding laughter, comedy and ethics.
  4. The aesthetics of play in contemporary visual practice.
  5. The development of the absurd in early twentieth century visual and dramatic practice.
  6. Theoretical debates regarding the body in comedy, including race, gender and class in medieval and Renaissance bawdy and contemporary gross-out films.

Additional Learning Experience Information

Seminar.

Assessment

GS1 GRADING SCHEMA 1 Used for standard coursework units

Students please note: The marks and grades received by students on assessments may be subject to further moderation. All marks and grades are to be considered provisional until endorsed by the relevant Board of Examiners.

ON CAMPUS
TypeDescriptionValue
PortfolioPrecis/Proposal50%
ProjectCreative/academic project with exegesis50%

Text References

  • ^ Dedicated Unit Reader.
  • Palmer, J. (1994). Taking humour seriously. London, England: Routledge.
  • Morreall, J. (2009). Comic relief: A comprehensive philosophy of humor. [EBook library version]. Retrieved from http://www.ecu.eblib.com.au/
  • Higgie, J. (Ed.). (2007). The artist's joke. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
  • Haynes, D.J. (1995). Bakhtin and the visual arts. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
  • Hall, J. (1995). Anxious pleasures: Shakespearean comedy and the nation-state. Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.
  • Davies, S., Higgins, K.M., & Hokins, R. (2009). A companion to aesthetics. [EBook library version]. Retrieved from http://www.ecu.eblib.com.au/
  • Bremmer, J., & Roodenburg, H. (Eds.). (1997). A cultural history of humour: From antiquity to the present day. Cambridge, MA: Polity Press.
  • Segal, E. (2001). The death of comedy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
  • Heller, A. (2005). The immortal comedy: The comic phenomenon in art, literature, and life. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. [need to order].

Journal References

  • Shakespeare Quarterly.
  • Renaissance Studies.
  • October.
  • New Literary History: a journal of theory and interpretation.
  • Modern Drama: world drama from 1850 to the present.
  • Journal of Communication.
  • Humor: International Journal of Humor Research.
  • Critical Inquiry.
  • British Journal of Aesthetics.
  • Speculum: a journal of medieval studies.
  • Art History: Journal of the Association of Art Historians.

^ Mandatory reference

Disability Standards for Education (Commonwealth 2005)

For the purposes of considering a request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Commonwealth 2005), inherent requirements for this subject are articulated in the Unit Description, Learning Outcomes and Assessment Requirements of this entry. The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the support for students with disabilities or medical conditions can be found at the Access and Inclusion website.

Academic Misconduct

Edith Cowan University has firm rules governing academic misconduct and there are substantial penalties that can be applied to students who are found in breach of these rules. Academic misconduct includes, but is not limited to:

  • plagiarism;
  • unauthorised collaboration;
  • cheating in examinations;
  • theft of other students' work;

Additionally, any material submitted for assessment purposes must be work that has not been submitted previously, by any person, for any other unit at ECU or elsewhere.

The ECU rules and policies governing all academic activities, including misconduct, can be accessed through the ECU website.

HMN3010|1|1

Faculty of Education and Arts

School: Communications and Arts

This unit information may be updated and amended immediately prior to semester. To ensure you have the correct outline, please check it again at the beginning of semester.

  • Unit Title

    What's So Funny?

  • Unit Code

    HMN3010

  • Year

    2015

  • Enrolment Period

    2

  • Version

    1

  • Credit Points

    15

  • Full Year Unit

     N

  • Mode of Delivery

    On Campus

Description

This unit examines laughter as an essential component of cultural production and human experience through the study of philosophical, literary, visual and filmic texts. Students investigate the way in which throughout history different forms of comedy, such as the bawdy, the absurd and the comedy of manners, reflect the society in which they are produced. This unit examines the relationships between aesthetics and ethics, asking how and why some texts are funny, and the way marginal cultural identities can both use humour to establish cultural agency, and be used by humour to become the butt of the joke.

Equivalent Rule

Unit was previously coded TRN3010

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit students should be able to:

  1. Apply theories of laughter and comedy to the analysis of texts.
  2. Discuss the ways in which the comic is historically determined.
  3. Evaluate texts in terms of the ethics of laughter.
  4. Identify and analyse different comic modes in texts.

Unit Content

  1. Comedy of manners in historical contexts, including formal and political issues of satire, parody and farce in written and filmic texts.
  2. Contemporary developments of self-reflexive and cringe comedy through the sit-com, visual art and film.
  3. Primary theoretical texts regarding laughter, comedy and ethics.
  4. The aesthetics of play in contemporary visual practice.
  5. The development of the absurd in early twentieth century visual and dramatic practice.
  6. Theoretical debates regarding the body in comedy, including race, gender and class in medieval and Renaissance bawdy and contemporary gross-out films.

Additional Learning Experience Information

Seminar.

Assessment

GS1 GRADING SCHEMA 1 Used for standard coursework units

Students please note: The marks and grades received by students on assessments may be subject to further moderation. All marks and grades are to be considered provisional until endorsed by the relevant Board of Examiners.

ON CAMPUS
TypeDescriptionValue
PortfolioPrecis/Proposal50%
ProjectCreative/academic project with exegesis50%

Text References

  • ^ Dedicated Unit Reader.
  • Palmer, J. (1994). Taking humour seriously. London, England: Routledge.
  • Morreall, J. (2009). Comic relief: A comprehensive philosophy of humor. [EBook library version]. Retrieved from http://www.ecu.eblib.com.au/
  • Higgie, J. (Ed.). (2007). The artist's joke. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
  • Haynes, D.J. (1995). Bakhtin and the visual arts. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
  • Hall, J. (1995). Anxious pleasures: Shakespearean comedy and the nation-state. Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.
  • Davies, S., Higgins, K.M., & Hokins, R. (2009). A companion to aesthetics. [EBook library version]. Retrieved from http://www.ecu.eblib.com.au/
  • Bremmer, J., & Roodenburg, H. (Eds.). (1997). A cultural history of humour: From antiquity to the present day. Cambridge, MA: Polity Press.
  • Segal, E. (2001). The death of comedy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
  • Heller, A. (2005). The immortal comedy: The comic phenomenon in art, literature, and life. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. [need to order].

Journal References

  • Shakespeare Quarterly.
  • Renaissance Studies.
  • October.
  • New Literary History: a journal of theory and interpretation.
  • Modern Drama: world drama from 1850 to the present.
  • Journal of Communication.
  • Humor: International Journal of Humor Research.
  • Critical Inquiry.
  • British Journal of Aesthetics.
  • Speculum: a journal of medieval studies.
  • Art History: Journal of the Association of Art Historians.

^ Mandatory reference

Disability Standards for Education (Commonwealth 2005)

For the purposes of considering a request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Commonwealth 2005), inherent requirements for this subject are articulated in the Unit Description, Learning Outcomes and Assessment Requirements of this entry. The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the support for students with disabilities or medical conditions can be found at the Access and Inclusion website.

Academic Misconduct

Edith Cowan University has firm rules governing academic misconduct and there are substantial penalties that can be applied to students who are found in breach of these rules. Academic misconduct includes, but is not limited to:

  • plagiarism;
  • unauthorised collaboration;
  • cheating in examinations;
  • theft of other students' work;

Additionally, any material submitted for assessment purposes must be work that has not been submitted previously, by any person, for any other unit at ECU or elsewhere.

The ECU rules and policies governing all academic activities, including misconduct, can be accessed through the ECU website.

HMN3010|1|2