Prerequisites: upper-divi- sion standing or consent of instructor

Description: Investigates the origins and historical development of contemporary Western culture’s two most popular genres. Although the focus is on literary texts ranging from Aristophanes to the present, the course also considers the many other cultural media through which the comic and the satiric find expression--among them, caricature drawing, photography, comic books, film, and televi- sion. Attention is given to debates about the related functions of irony, laughter, violence, and sexuality.