Course Description

This 100-level course explores the romantic comedy, from Shakespearean and Restoration plays, to the screwball comedies of the mid-twentieth century, to contemporary romantic comedies that span historical, cultural, and social contexts in order to examine how these stories can reinforce or resist sexist ideologies and reshape the stories we tell about sex, love, and gender.

This course will also examine the romantic comedy as a potential vehicle for social justice. We’ll question how the social perception of the romantic comedy changes in a post-MeToo world, the significance of showing HEAs (Happily Ever Afters) for people with historically marginalized identities, and, ultimately, how the genre shape the politics of pleasure.

Texts

Plays:

William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew (1590-1592) ~ 1996 Bedford/St. Martins

Aphra Behn’s The Rover (1677) ~ 2004 Broadview Edition

Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s The Rivals (1775) ~ 1998 Dover Edition

Movies:

The Lady Eve (1941)

Some Like It Hot (1959)

When Harry Met Sally (1989)

Pretty Woman (1999)

You’ve Got Mail (1998)

10 Things I Hate About You (1999)

She’s All That (1999)

Sueno (2006)

Imagine Me & You (2006)

Something New (2006)

Love and Other Disasters (2007)

It’s Complicated (2009)

Bros (2022)

Books

Maya Rodale’s Lady Claire is All That (2016)

N.G. Peltier’s Sweethand (2021)

Requirements

Students will participate in class discussions as well as complete assignment readings, develop and share two presentations, write two 2-4 page analytical essays, and complete a final group project.

About the Instructor(s): Maria DeBlassie

Dr. Maria DeBlassie is a native New Mexican mestiza and award-winning writer and educator living in the Land of Enchantment. She writes and teaches about spooky stuff, romance, and all things witchy. She is forever looking for magic in her life and somehow always finding more than she thought was there. Find out more about Maria and conjuring everyday magic at mariadeblassie.com.