Bennett, E orcid.org/0000-0002-1928-9794 (2016) When Is a Joke not a Joke? Reading (and Re-reading) Stewart Lee’s ‘The Rap Singers’. In: Kartsaki, E, (ed.) On Repetition: Writing, Performance and Art. Intellect , Bristol , pp. 81-98. ISBN 9781783205776
Abstract
In this chapter, I will reflect on the silly irresistibility of comic repetition. I am interested in where this might happen to coincide with what we might think of as the more ‘serious’ qualities of academic study: attentiveness, meticulousness, rigour. If, as Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick writes, ‘obsession is the most durable form of intellectual capital’ (2003: 2), then the compulsive return to an object of study is the mode by which it operates. What we might call a ‘close reading’, in practice, is achieved via repeated acts of reading, returning again and again to the text. After Sedgwick, we might think of this kind of reading as driven by, and generative of, a certain emotional closeness, one that can be risky, as in ‘too close for comfort’. In this chapter, I am interested in how the repeated, compulsive re-reading of a text might begin to undo the reader’s ability to ‘see’ what is before her, at least in a clear or singular outline. And, I am interested in the way that, unexpectedly, Stewart Lee’s stand-up comedy offers occasions for reflecting upon the dangers – and pleasures – of reading closely and reading repeatedly.
Metadata
Item Type: | Book Section |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. This is an author produced version of a chapter published in On Repetition: Writing, Performance and Art. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | joke, stand-up, repetition, deconstruction, figures of speech |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures (Leeds) > Performance and Cultural Industries (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 19 Aug 2019 14:27 |
Last Modified: | 25 Jun 2023 21:52 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Intellect |
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Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:147460 |