Last Laughs

<p>First published in 1988, the 19 original essays (and three "Sylvia" cartoons) included in this volume deal with the gender-specific nature of comedy. This pioneering collection observes the creation of women’s comedy from a wide range of standpoints: political, sociological, psychoanalytical, linguistic, and historical. The writers explore the role of women’s comedy in familiar and unfamiliar territory, from Austen to Weldon, from Behn to Wasserstein. The questions they raise will lead to a redefinition of the genre itself. </p> <p><strong>Part I</strong> Sylvia <i>Nicole Hollander</i> Introduction <i>Regina Barreca</i> Who Was That Masked Woman? The Prostitute and the Playwright in the Comedies of Aphra Behn <i>Catherine Gallagher</i> Life After Sex: The Fictional Autobiography of Delariver Manley <i>Janet Todd</i> Jane Austen: Irony and Authority <i>Rachel M. Brownstein</i> Austen’s Laughter <i>Patricia Meyer Spacks</i> Deflation of Male Pretensions in Fanny Burney’s <i>Cecelia</i> <i>Kay Rogers</i> <b>Part II </b> Sylvia <i>Nicole Hollander </i>Frances Miriam Whitcher: Social Satire in the Age of Gentility <i>Linda A. Morris</i> Hate and Humor as Empathetic Whimsy in Anne Thackeray Ritchie <i>Carol Hanbery MacKay </i>Between Women: A Cross-Class Analysis of Status and Anarchic Humor <i>Regenia Gagnier</i> Slaying the Angel and the Patriarch: The Grinning Woolf <i>Denise Marshall</i> (En)gendering Laughter: Woolf’s Orlando as Contraband in the Age of Joyce <i>Judy Little</i> Truth-Telling: The Self and the Fictions of Humor <i>Mary Ann Rorison Caws</i> <b>Part III</b> Sylvia <i>Nicole Hollander </i> Ironic Autobiography: From <i>The Waterfall</i> to <i>The Handmaid’s Tale</i>, <i>Nancy Walker</i> Muriel Spark’s <i>Unknowing</i> Fiction <i>John Glavin</i> Metaphor-into-Narrative: Being Very Careful with Words <i>Regina Barreca</i> Uncommon Woman: An Interview with Wendy Wasserstein <i>Esther Cohen</i> Feminist Humor: Rebellious and Self-Affirming <i>Lisa Merrill</i> Daughters of Anger/Material Girls: Con/Textualizing Feminist Criticism <i>Jane Marcus</i> Towards a Humorous View of the Universe <i>Fay Weldon</i>. About the Contributors. Index.</p>