Nothing to Laugh About: Comedy and War

Thursday, September 17, 2009
4:00 p.m.
Robertson Hall, room 258

Please join us as Virginia Film Festival Fellow, Maria DiBattista, discusses comedy and war. How does comedy dare to tackle experiences and events that seem too harrowing to permit, much less encourage even the mildest laughter? A defense of the impertinence of American war comedies from Duck Soup and The Great Dictator to Three Kings.

Professor DiBattista is a professor of English and Comparative Literature at Princeton University. She has written numerous articles on modern literature and film. Her books include Virginia Woolf: The Fables of Anon, First Love: The Affections of Modern Fiction, and Fast Talking Dames. Her most recent book is Imagining Virginia Woolf: An Experiment in Critical Biography.