Tragicomedy in the 20th Century

February 12

Michael Y. Bennett, associate professor, Literature, Writing and Film

The success of Life is Beautiful (which garnered seven nominations and won three Oscars at the Academy Awards in 1999) represents the culmination and coming to terms with one of history’s most tumultuous centuries. While the film did have its detractors, the notion of taking one of history’s most horrific events and filling it with (almost-slapstick) comedy would have been unimaginable if not for the rise of tragicomedy over the course of the 20^th century. This lecture suggests that the move toward tragic realism away from the gaiety of fin-de-siècle comedy soon found a more mature and reflective form with the tragicomedy of the Absurd; once the nonsense subsided and was replaced with sense, “tragicomic realism” became the default genre of late twentieth century theatre.