Misty Krueger

#mkandja

I am happy to announce that Erin M. Goss’s edited collection, Jane Austen and Comedy, has been published by Bucknell UP (in conjunction with Rutgers UP).

I contributed an essay to this collection, and writing this paper was so much fun. Why? Two reasons: 1) an essay on Austen is almost always fun, and 2) an essay on sea monsters is certainly a blast.

Here’s a snapshot of my title:

In the paper I talk about Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, and I incorporate theory on laughter, jokes, and caricature from Henri Bergson, Sigmund Freud, and Mikhail Bakhtin to show what the mashup adds to 21st-century readers’ understanding of Austen’s 19th-century characters. The character I spend most of my time on is Colonel Brandon, also known as old fishy face.

My essay rounds out the volume. Saved the best for last? 😀 J/K. Other volume contributors and subjects include:

Part I. Comic Energy and Explosive Humor … 27
One – Austen, Philosophy, and Comic Stylistics … 28
Eric Lindstrom
Two – Jane Austen: Comedy Against Happiness … 62
David Sigler
Three – “Open-Hearted”: Persuasion and the Cultivation of Good Humor … 95
Sean Dempsey
Part II. (Emma’s) Laughter with a Purpose … 121
Four – After the Laughter: Seeking Perfect Happiness in Emma … 122
Soha Chung
Five – The Comic Visions of Emma Woodhouse … 148
Timothy Erwin
Part III. Comedic Form, Comedic Effect … 186
Six – On Austen, Comedy, and Future Possibility … 187
Erin M. Goss
Seven – Lost in the Comedy: Austen’s Paternalistic Men and the Problem of Accountability …218
Michael Kramp

I encourage you to order the book for your own personal collection and for your library. It is reasonably priced at $34.95 in paperback.

Need more recommendations than mine? See what Jocelyn Harris and Toby Benis have to say:

Happy reading!