Comedy Incarnate: Buster Keaton, Physical Humor, and Bodily Coping [Hardcover]

No?l Carroll (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 30, 2007

In Comedy Incarnate, Noël Carroll surveys the characteristics of Buster Keaton’s unique visual style, to reveal the distinctive experience of watching Keaton’s films.

• Bold and provocative thesis written by one of America’s foremost film theorists
• Takes a unique look at the philosophies behind Keaton’s style
• Weighs visual elements over narrative form in the analysis of the Keaton’s work
• Provides a fresh vantage point for analysis of film and comedy itself

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Buster Keaton was an engineer of the comic, a craftsman of gags, a mechanic of humor. While Carroll does not aspire to be as funny as Keaton, he can match (and follow) him in intricate and brilliant analysis, providing a logic of illogic. A book that will change how slapstick and film style are written about.”
Tom Gunning, University of Chicago

“Comedy Incarnate is a brilliant, inventive and lucid examination of Buster Keaton’s The General. Through close textual analysis, Carroll opens up a wide expanse of historical and theoretical territory – positioning The General in relation to the writings of Merleau-Ponty, Bergson, and Poulet, as well as to the films of Chaplin, Lloyd, and Langdon. Lucy Fischer, University of Pittsburgh

"Building on Keaton's directorial practice as a sort of civil engineer who engaged a mechanical universe, Carroll...investigates how Keaton's emphasis on gags and their intelligibility characterize the film in specific ways. In so doing he opens up an understanding of how Keaton's comedy of body intelligence works, especially in contrast to contemporaries like Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd, and he shows how intelligence--the artist's and the viewer's--informs laughter." CHOICE

Book Description

Comedy Incarnate explores the intricacies of Buster Keatonrsquo;s unique visual style to discover what provokes laughter in his timeless films, paying special attention to The General. Keatonrsquo;s precise body comedy, coupled with his unconventional directorial decisions, suggests a new way of analyzing the film in terms of its visual elements as opposed to its narrative. Written by one of Americarsquo;s foremost film theorists, this in-depth examination of the comedy of the steam, steel and railroad era will provide a fresh vantage point for analysis of film and comedy itself.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell; 1 edition (January 30, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1405155256
• ISBN-13: 978-1405155250
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 0.7 x 9.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,792,156 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars excruciating dissections, March 6, 2007

By 

W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Comedy Incarnate: Buster Keaton, Physical Humor, and Bodily Coping (Hardcover)

There is perhaps an unintentional irony here. The subject is humour, as depicted in the classic movies of Buster Keaton. Specifically in "The General". But also covering Keaton's other efforts, like "Cops" or "The Blacksmith". Yet the text's discourse is deadly serious. It is as though in a deadpan manner, Carroll takes us through excruciating dissections of the films. Looking at the thematic underpinnings, and analysing Keaton's techniques. Extremely reductionist approach.

I do not disagree with the author's conclusions. Far from it. But by the end of the book, one could wonder what was so funny about the films.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Dated and Costly, December 4, 2007

By 

David B. Pearson (Picayune, MS United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Comedy Incarnate: Buster Keaton, Physical Humor, and Bodily Coping (Hardcover)

Despite being a "new" book, the material appears to have been a originally been a dissertation written back in the 1970s. As such, the conclusions are dated by about a generation, and written for the wrong (academic) audience. At $64, this book is just not worth it.