Materi pendukung Pertemuan 13 Matakuliah: G0302/Introduction to Literature Tahun: 2007

Bina Nusantara Comedy, Northrop Frye has said, lies between satire and romance. Historically, there have been two chief kinds of comedy—scornful comedy and romantic comedy, laughing comedy and smiling comedy. comedy 3

Bina Nusantara The most essential difference between tragedy and comedy, particularly scornful comedy, is in their depictions of human nature. Where tragedy emphasizes human greatness, comedy delineate human weakness. Where tragedy celebrates human freedom, comedy points up human limitation. Comedy and tragedy 4

Bina Nusantara comedy Because comedy exposes human folly, its function is partly critical and corrective. Comedy reveals to us a spectacle of human ridiculousness that it makes us want to avoid. We go to the theatre primarily for enjoyment, not to receive lessons in personality or character development. Nevertheless, laughter may be educative at the same time that it is enjoyable.

Bina Nusantara comedy - Romantic or smiling comedy, as opposed to scornful comedy, and as exemplified by many plays of Shakespeare puts its emphasis upon sympathetic rather than ridiculous characters.

Bina Nusantara comedy The norms of comedy are primarily social. Comedy puts its protagonists always in the midst of a group and emphasizes their commonness. We judge the comic protagonist by social standards, by how well he adjusts to society and conforms to the expectations of the group.

Bina Nusantara comedy Comic plots are less likely than tragic plots to exhibit the high degree of organic unity—of logical cause-effect progression—that Aristotle required of tragedy. Plausibility, in fact, is not usually the central characteristic of a comic plot. Conventionally comedies have a happy ending. The happy ending is, indeed, a convention of comedy, which is to say that a comedy ends happily.

Bina Nusantara melodrama Melodrama attempts to arouse feelings of fear and pity, but it does so ordinarily through cruder means. The conflict is an oversimplified one between good and evil depicted in absolute terms. Most important, good finally triumphs over evil, and the ending is happy. Typically, at the end, the hero marries the heroine; villainy is foiled or crushed. Melodrama does not provide the complex insights of tragedy. It is typically escapist rather than interpretative.

Bina Nusantara farce Farce, more consistently than comedy, is aimed at rousing explosive laughter. But again the means are cruder. The conflicts are violent and usually at the physical level. Plot emphasized at the expense of characterization, improbable situations and coincidence at the expense of articulated plot. Absurdity replaces plausibility. Coarse wit, practical jokes and physical are staples.