Funny women: A study of female comedic personae.
Item
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Title
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Funny women: A study of female comedic personae.
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Identifier
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AAI8820871
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identifier
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8820871
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Creator
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Horowitz, Susan N.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Vera Mowry Roberts
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Date
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1988
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Theater
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Abstract
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This study examines the comedic personalities of four leading comediennes from the 1950's to the present. Each comedienne represents a different popular genre, and each has achieved outstanding public acceptance. The comediennes are as follows: Lucille Ball (situation comedy), Phyllis Diller (stand-up comedy), Carol Burnett (sketch comedy), and Goldie Hawn (feature film comedy). While the chief focus of this study is on these four comediennes, their work is set in historical context by referring to other American comediennes from nineteenth century vaudeville to the present. Materials are drawn from books and articles about the comediennes; critical studies of comedy from the ancients to the moderns; plays, films, television shows, phonograph recordings, nightclub acts etc.; and personal interviews.;This study considers how the physical attributes, talents, tastes, backgrounds, and personalities of Ball, Diller, Burnett, and Hawn led to the creation of their particular comedic personae. It explores how the nature of each genre tends to promote certain types of comedic characters and why certain behaviors, jokes, dialogue, visual effects and vocalisms are funny. It examines these comedic personae in the light of the current sex-roles of women in society. And finally, it demonstrates that the success of a popular comedic personality depends on a balance of certain key power elements: comedic appeal, sex appeal, and overall competence. It shows that successful female comedic personalities exert sufficient power to attract, but not threaten audiences, and that the amount of power allowed to a female comedic performer reflects the power currently permitted to women in society. The stereotypes of the "dumb sexpot" or the "ugly wisecracker" are examined as attempts to objectify women and limit their power to either the sexual or the intellectual arenas. It demonstrates that as women achieve greater power, female comedic personalities are also apt to present themselves as both more powerful (combining sex appeal and competence) and less stereotypically sexy or sexless. In essence, this study examines what makes successful female comedic personalities appealing and places them in the context of the sex-roles of women in society.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
