American Dark Comedy: Beyond Satire

(Hardback)

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From Charlie Chaplin's "The Gold Rush" to Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction", Gehring presents a theory of the black comedy film genre. Placing the movies he discusses in an historical and literary context, Gehring explores the genre's obsession with death and the characters' failure to be shocked by it. Movies discussed include: "Slaughterhouse Five", "Catch 22", "Clockwork Orange", "Harold and Maude", "Heathers" and "Natural Born Killers".

Author Bio

WES D. GEHRING is Professor of Film at Ball State University. He is author of ten previous books: Leo McCarey and the Comic Antihero in American Film (1980), Charlie Chaplin: A Bio-Bibliography (1983), W. C. Fields: A Bio-Bibliography (1984), Screwball Comedy: A Genre of Madcap Romance (1986), The Marx Brothers: A Bio-Bibliography (1987), Handbook of American Film Genres (1988), Laurel & Hardy: A Bio-Bibliography (1990), Mr. B. or Comforting Thoughts About the Bison: A Critical Biography of Robert Benchley (1992), Populism and the Capra Legacy (1995), all by Greenwood Press, and Groucho and W. C. Fields: Huckster Comedians (1994). His poems and humor pieces have appeared in numerous publications.