The Poetics and Politics of Invective Humor: Disparagement in Contemporary Female-Led US Sitcoms (American Culture Studies)

The Poetics and Politics of Invective Humor: Disparagement in Contemporary Female-Led US Sitcoms (American Culture Studies)
by: Katja Schulze (Author)
Publisher:Transcript Verlag
Publication Date: 15 Sept. 2022
Language:English
Print Length:300 pages
ISBN-10:3837662608
ISBN-13:9783837662603
Book Description
Vituperation, disparagement, and debasement seem to have become part of the mainstream discourse in contemporary US-American media culture. Zooming in on a distinct televisual comedy genre, Katja Schulze explores the formal principles, media-specific realizations, and the cultural work of disparagement in contemporary female-led situation comedies. Subsequently, larger patterns of (gender-based) invective strategies and conventions that define the dynamism of this comedic genre come into view. Her study outlines case studies of popular sitcoms, like Parks and Recreation, Mike & Molly, and the revival of hit-sitcom Roseanne, thereby unearthing how the shows are able to stage humor as mass-mediated deprecation – a signifying practice with its own poetics and politics.
About the Author
Vituperation, disparagement, and debasement seem to have become part of the mainstream discourse in contemporary US-American media culture. Zooming in on a distinct televisual comedy genre, Katja Schulze explores the formal principles, media-specific realizations, and the cultural work of disparagement in contemporary female-led situation comedies. Subsequently, larger patterns of (gender-based) invective strategies and conventions that define the dynamism of this comedic genre come into view. Her study outlines case studies of popular sitcoms, like Parks and Recreation, Mike & Molly, and the revival of hit-sitcom Roseanne, thereby unearthing how the shows are able to stage humor as mass-mediated deprecation – a signifying practice with its own poetics and politics.