HOLLYWOOD ROMANTIC COMEDY SPRING TERM, 2019 MODULE OUTLINE
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WARWICK, DEPARTMENT OF FILM & TELEVISION STUDIES
HOLLYWOOD ROMANTIC COMEDY
SPRING TERM, 2019
MODULE OUTLINE
Introduction
Spanning numerous developments in the conceptualisation of intimate relations in U. S. culture –
pertaining to marriage, gender, sexuality, etc. – the romantic comedy has proved itself both a resilient
and flexible Hollywood genre. This module aims to provide you with a nuanced understanding of
some of the narrative conventions, styles, themes, and historical developments of this most enduring of
popular forms. Amongst other things, we will be exploring ways the genre has navigated longstanding
features of the social and ideological category of ‘the romantic couple’, as well as its ability to
incorporate changes in cultural discourses surrounding that category. While the romantic comedy is
frequently decried as merely formulaic escapism (or worse), this module hopes to foster a critical
appreciation of the genre both in terms of the complexity of its conventions and its indefatigable
capacity for continual reinvention.
1
Course leader: James MacDowell
Location:
All sessions in room A0.26
Timetable:
Mondays 3.00 – 3.30 approx Lecture
3.30 – 5.30 approx Screening
Tuesdays 10.00 – 12.00 Seminar
Assessment:
You have a choice of assessment routes on this module: either one 5,000 word essay, or one two-hour
exam question. The essay deadline is Tuesday 23rd April (Week 1, Autumn). Essay questions to
follow.
Paris When it Sizzles (1964)
2
WEEK 1 Romantic Conventions: Social, Fictional, Generic
Film: Much Ado About Nothing (Kenneth Branagh, 1993)
Before we begin to address the Hollywood romantic comedy, this week will introduce and explore some of
the historical, social and generic contexts of romantic love and its depiction by looking at (a cinematic
adaptation of) a much older foundational romantic comedy text: Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing.
Required reading:
Shumway, David R. (2003) ‘Introduction: A Brief History of Love’, in Modern Love: Romance, Intimacy,
and the Marriage Crisis, London: New York University Press, 1-28. [See course extracts]
Recommended reading:
- Booth, Alison (1993), ‘Introduction: The Sense of Few Endings’, in Alison Booth (ed.), Famous Last
Words: Changes in Gender and Narrative Closure, University Press of Virginia, 1-32.
- Giddens, Anthony (1992) The Transformation of Intimacy: Sexuality, Love & Eroticism in Modern
Societies. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
- Boone, Joseph Allen (1987) Tradition, Counter-Tradition: Love and the Form of Fiction, London:
University of Chicago Press.
- Frye, Northrop (1948) ‘The Argument of Comedy’, in D. A. Robertson, (ed.), English Institute Essays,
1948, New York: Columbia University Press, 58-74.
- Glitre, Kathrina (2006) 'Hollywood Romantic Comedy', Hollywood Romantic Comedy: States of the
Union, 1934-65, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 9 - 40.
- Rowe, Kathleen (1995) ‘Comedy, Melodrama and Gender: Theorizing the Genres of Laughter’, in
Kristine Brunovska Karnick, Henry Jenkins (eds.), Classical Hollywood Comedy, New York: Routledge,
39-59.
- Saunders, Corrine (Ed.) (2004) A Companion to Romance: From Classical to Contemporary. Ed..
Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
- Pearce, Lynne (2004) ‘Popular Romance and its Readers’. A Companion to Romance: From Classical to
Contemporary. Ed. Corrine Saunders. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. 521-538.
3
WEEK 2 Screwball Comedy
Film: Bringing up Baby (Howard Hawks, 1938)
‘Screwball comedy’ – a style of high-energy comic romance usually said to have begun with Frank
Capra’s It Happened One Night (1934) – is one of the key sub-genres of the romantic comedy. Hawks’
seminal Bringing Up Baby will be examined this week to instigate a conversation about the potential
flexibility of our genre’s conventions and gender representations.
Required reading:
1. Thomas, Deborah (2000), ‘Structures, Moods and Worlds’, in Beyond Genre: Melodrama, Comedy and
Romance in Hollywood Films, Dumfrieshire: Cameron and Hollis, 9-25.
2. Glitre, Kathrina (2006), ‘The Same, But Different: Marriage, Remarriage and Screwball Comedy’,
Hollywood Romantic Comedy: States of the Union, 1934-65, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 41
– 64.
Suggested viewing
Ball of Fire (1941), Holiday (1938), It Happened One Night (1934), Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), Mr.
And Mrs. Smith (1941), My Favorite Wife (1940), My Man Godfrey (1936), Platinum Blonde (1931),
Sherlock Jr. (1924), The Thin Man (1934), That Uncertain Feeling (1941), Twentieth Century (1934)
Recommended reading:
- Babbington, Bruce & Peter Evans (1989) 'Education Sentimentale: Bringing Up Baby and the Golden
Age of Hollywood Comedy', in Affairs to Remember: The Hollywood Comedy of the Sexes. Manchester:
Manchester University Press. 1 - 45.
- Gehring, Wes D. (2008), Romantic Vs. Screwball Comedy: Charting the Difference, Plymouth:
Scarecrow.
- Lent, Tina Olsin (1995) 'Romantic Love and Friendship: The Redefinition of Gender Relations in
Screwball Comedy', in Kristine Brunovska Karnick, Henry Jenkins (eds.), Classical Hollywood Comedy,
New York: Routledge, 315-331.
- McDonald, Tamar Jeffers (2007) ‘Screwball Comedy’, Romantic Comedy: Boy Meets Girl Meets Genre.
London: Wallflower.
- Rowe, Kathleen (1995) The Unruly Woman: Gender and the Genres of Laughter. Austin: University of
Texas Press.
- Sikov, Ed (1989) Screwball: Hollywood's Madcap Romantic Comedies, New York: Crown Publishers.
4
WEEK 3 The Comedy of Remarriage
Film: The Lady Eve (Preston Sturges, 1941)
The philosopher Stanley Cavell coined the term ‘comedy of remarriage’ to refer to a particular kind of
30s/40s romantic comedy in which a central couple either separate, divorce, or in some other fashion are
required to rethink the meaning and determinants of marriage and romantic love in a profound fashion. Can
romantic comedy be philosophical?
Required reading:
Cavell, Stanley (1981)‘Cons and Pros: The Lady Eve’, Pursuits of Happiness: The Hollywood Comedy of
Remarriage, Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 45-70.
Suggested viewing:
Adam’s Rib (1949), The Awful Truth (1937), His Girl Friday (1940), It Happened One Night (1934), Mr &
Mrs Smith (1941), Mr & Mrs Smith (2005), The Palm Beach Story (1942), The Philadelphia Story (1940)
Recommended reading:
- Babbington, Bruce & Peter Evans (1989) Affairs to Remember: The Hollywood Comedy of the Sexes.
Manchester: Manchester University Press.
- Harvey, James (1987) Romantic Comedy in Hollywood, from Lubitsch to Sturges. London: Da Capo
Press.
- Jacobs, Diane (1992) Christmas in July: The Life and Art of Preston Sturges. Univ of California Press.
- Klevan, Andrew (2013) Barbara Stanwyck, London: BFI.
- Shumway, David R. (1991) ‘Screwball Comedies: Constructing romance, mystifying marriage’, Cinema
Journal, 7-23.
- Wartenberg, Thomas E. (2006) ‘Beyond Mere Illustration: How Films can be Philosophy’, The Journal
of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 64 (1), 19-32.
5
WEEK 4 The ‘Nervous’ Romance
Film: A New Leaf (Elaine May, 1971)
The 60s and 70s saw a radical rethinking of gender relations in the United States, due in large part to the
rise of second-wave feminism. During the 70s in particular there emerged a cycle in Hollywood romantic
comedy that has been given the name ‘Nervous Romance’ – films that tackled the shifting status of
romance and marriage during this period in which such concepts were undergoing thorough interrogation;
but to what extent might romantic comedy be said to always be somewhat ‘nervous’?
Required reading
McDonald, Tamar Jeffers (2007) ‘The Radical Romantic Comedy’, Romantic Comedy: Boy Meets Girl
Meets Genre. London: Wallflower, 59-84.
Suggested viewing
A New Leaf (1971), An Unmarried Woman (1978), Annie Hall (1977), Blume in Love (1973), Bob & Carol
& Ted & Alice (1969), Breezy (1973), The Goodbye Girl (1977), The Graduate (1967), The Happy Ending
(1969), Harold and Maude (1971), The Heartbreak Kid (2007), Manhattan (1978), Same Time Next Year
(1978), Semi-Tough (1977), Starting Over (1979), Two For the Road (1967), What’s Up Doc? (1972)
Recommended reading
- Gerhard, Jane (2001) Desiring Revolution: Second-Wave Feminism and the Rewriting of American
Sexual Thought, 1920 to 1982, New York: Columbia University Press.
- Henderson, Brian (1978) ‘Romantic Comedy Today: Semi-Tough or Impossible?’ Film Quarterly, Vol.
31, No. 4. (1978), pp. 11-23
- Krutnik, Frank (1990) 'The Faint Aroma of Performing Seals: The "Nervous" Romance and the Comedy
of the Sexes', The Velvet Light Trap, 26 (Fall), 57-72.
- Krutnik, Frank (1998), ‘Love Lies: Romantic Fabrication in Contemporary Romantic Comedy’, in
Deleyto, Celestino & Peter Williams Evans (eds.), Terms of Endearment: Hollywood Romantic Comedies
of the 80s and 90s, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 15-36.
6
WEEK 5 ‘New’ Romance (1): Postmodernism and Post-feminism
Film: The Holiday (Nancy Meyers, 2006)
The romantic comedy saw a major resurgence in popularity and profitability from the late 80s onwards.
Key to this was what has been dubbed the ‘New Romance’ – a cycle of films that appeared to stage self-
conscious reaffirmations of ‘traditional’ romantic discourses, and which has been associated by critics with
particular post-feminist and postmodern strains in culture.
Required Reading
Garrett, Roberta (2007) ‘Romantic Comedy and Female Spectatorship’, in Postmodern Chick Flicks: the
Return of the Woman’s Film, New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 92 – 125.
Suggested viewing
The American President (1996), Big (1998), Definitely Maybe (2008), Enchanted (2007), Friends With
Benefits (2011), Forces of Nature (1999), Love Actually (2003), Moonstruck (1987), One Fine Day (1994),
Only You (1994), Peggy Sue Got Married (1986), Romancing the Stone (1984), Roxanne (1987), She’s All
That (1998), Sleepless in Seattle (1993) Something Wild (1986), When Harry Met Sally (1998), Win a Date
With Tad Hamilton! (2004)
Recommended Reading
- Faludi, Susan (1991) Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women, New York: Three
Rivers.
- Dowd, James J., Nicole R. Pallotta (2000) ‘The End of Romance: The Demystification of Love in the
Postmodern Age’, Sociological Perspectives, 43:4, 549-580. [Access online]
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/1389548?uid=3738032&uid=2&uid=4&sid=21105444753393
- Illouz, Eva (1997) Consuming the Romantic Utopia: Love and the Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism,
Los Angeles: University of California Press.
- McDonald, Tamar Jeffers (2007) ‘The Neo-Traditional Romantic Comedy’, in Romantic Comedy: Boy
Meets Girl Meets Genre. London: Wallflower.
- Jermyn, Deborah (2017) Nancy Meyers, Ney Work: Bloomsbury Publishing.
- Neale, Steve (1992) ‘The Big Romance or Something Wild?: Romantic Comedy Today’, Screen 33:3,
284-299.
- Schreiber, Michel (2014) American Postfeminist Cinema, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
- Warhol, Robyn R. (2003) Having a Good Cry: Effeminate Feelings and Pop-Culture Forms, Athens:
Ohio State University Press.
7
WEEK 7 ‘New’ Romance (2): Whatever Works?
Film: My Best Friend’s Wedding (P. J. Hogan, 1998)
This week asks what other possibilities may have arisen in mainstream romantic comedy following the
‘New Romance’ resurgence, focusing on different permutations for the representation of romantic
relationships, and indeed different forms of personal relationships altogether.
Required reading:
Deleyto, Celestino (2003), ‘Between Friends: Love and Friendship in Contemporary Hollywood Romantic
Comedy’, Screen, 44:2, 167-182. [Access online]:
http://screen.oxfordjournals.org/content/44/2/167.extract
Suggested viewing:
The Break-Up (2005), The Five Year Engagement (2012), Hope Springs (2012), How Stella Got Her
Groove Back (1998), I Love You, Man (2009), Love and Other Drugs (2010), Knocked Up (2007), Muriel’s
Wedding (1994), The Next Best Thing (2000), The Object of My Affection (1997), Prime (2004), Sex and
the City (2008), Something’s Gotta Give (2003), They Came Together (2014), Unconditional Love (2003),
Whatever Works (2009), White Men Can’t Jump (1992)
Recommended reading:
- Azcona, María del Mar (2010) ‘Precarious Teleologies: New Endings for a New Genre’, in in Armelle
Parey, Isabelle Roblin & Dominique Sipière (eds.), Happy Endings and Films, Paris: Michel Houdiard,
151-159.
- Deleyto, Celestino (1998) ‘They Lived Happily Ever After: Ending Contemporary Romantic Comedy’,
Misceleana: A Journal of English and American Studies 19, 39-55.
http://www.miscelaneajournal.net/images/stories/articulos/vol19/deleyto19.pdf
- Jeffers McDonald, Tamar (2007) ‘Homme-com: Engendering Change in Contemporary Romantic
Comedy’, in Stacey Abbott, Deborah Jermyn (eds.), Falling in Love Again: Romantic Comedy in
Contemporary Cinema, London: I. B. Tauris, 146 – 159. Download:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/46393778/Falling-in-Love-Again
- Wood, Robin (2003) 'On and Around My Best Friend’s Wedding', in Hollywood from Vietnam to
Reagan... and Beyond, London: Columbia University Press, 295-308.
8
WEEK 8 ‘Indiewood’ Romance (1): ‘Alternative’ Forms
Film: Before Sunrise (Richard Linklater, 1995)
From the late 1980s onwards there has been an increasing blurring of the boundaries between
‘independent’ and ‘Hollywood’ cinema, and this sector has offered numeorus variations on the romantic
comedy; this week we examine some of those variations, as well as their continuity with familiar generic
conventions.
Required reading:
1. King, Geoff (2005) ‘Introduction: How Independent?’, American Independent Cinema, London: I. B.
Tauris, 1-10.
2. Wood, Robin (1998) ‘Rethinking Romantic Love: Before Sunrise’, in Sexual Politics and Narrative
Film: Hollywood and Beyond, New York: Columbia University Press.
Suggested viewing:
(500) Days of Summer (2009), 2 Days in New York (2012), Before Sunset (2004), Before Midnight (2013),
Buffalo ‘66 (1998), Celeste and Jesse Forever (2012), Chasing Amy (1995), Drinking Buddies (2013),
Enough Said (2013), Her (2013), Hannah Takes the Stairs (2007), In Search of a Midnight Kiss (2009),
Lost in Translation (2003), Obvious Child (2014), Ruby Sparks (2012), Rushmore (1998), Scott Pilgrim vs.
The World (2010), Silver Linings Playbook (2011), The Sidewalks of New York (2004), Sideways (2004),
Two Girls and a Guy (1996), The Unbelievable Truth (1989), Waitress (2007).
Recommended reading:
- Bore, Inger-Lise Kalviknes (2011) ‘Reviewing Romcom:(100) IMDb Users and (500) Days of Summer’,
Participations 8:2, http://www.participations.org/Volume%208/Issue%202/2b%20Kalviknes%20Bore.pdf
- Deleyto, Celestino (2009) ‘Contemporary Romantic Comedy and the Discourse of Independence’, The
Secret Life of Romantic Comedy, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 148 – 157.
- Grindon, Leger (2013) ‘Taking Romantic Comedy Seriously in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless
Mind (2004) and Before Sunset (2004).” In A Companion to Film Comedy, edited by Andrew Horton &
Joanna E. Rapf, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 196-216.
- King, Geoff (2009) Indiewood, USA: Where Hollywood Meets Independent Cinema, London: I.B. Tauris.
- MacDowell, James (2013) ‘Happy Endings and Ideology’ (portion), in Happy Endings in Hollywood
Cinema: Cliché, Convention and the Final Couple, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 133-149.
- Meyer, Michael J. (2008) ‘Reflections on Comic Reconciliations: Ethics, Memory, and Anxious Happy
Endings’, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 66:1, 77-87.
9
WEEK 9 ‘Indiewood’ Romance (2): ‘Alternative’ Intimacies
Film: Shortbus (John Cameron Mitchell, 2006)
Another thing made increasingly possible by the ‘Indiewood’ sector (combined with innumerable other
changes in U.S. society and culture) is a greater possibility for romantic comedy focused on LGBTQ+
relationships, as well as on alternative understandings of ‘the couple’; this week we ask what might be
changed by, and what might remain the same despite, such expansions of focus for the genre.
Required reading:
Deleyto, Celestino (2009) ‘Theories of Romantic Comedy’, The Secret Life of Romantic Comedy
Suggested viewing:
Appropriate Behaviour (2014), Bar Girls (1994), Billy’s Hollywood Screen Kiss (1998), Brokeback
Mountain (2005), But I’m a Cheerleader! (1999), Desert Hearts (1985), Go Fish (1994), Hedwig and the
Angry Inch (2001), Imagine Me and You (2005), The Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love
(1995), Itty Bitty Titty Committee (2007), Jeffrey (1995), Kissing Jessica Stein (2001), My own Private
Idaho (1991), Puccini For Beginners (2006), Trick (1999).
Recommended reading:
- Azcona, María del Mar (2010) The Multi-Protagonist Film, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
- Benshoff, Harry M., Sean Griffin (2006) Queer Images: A History of Gay and Lesbian Film in America,
Rowman & Littlefield.
- Bryant, Wayne M. ‘Shortbus’, Journal of Bisexuality, 9:2, 187 - 190
- Lippert, Leopold (2010), ‘Negotiating Postmodernity and Queer Utopianism in Shortbus’, in Petra
Eckhard, Michael Fuchs and Walter Höbling (eds), Landscapes of Postmodernity: Concepts and
Paradigms of Critical Theory, London: Transaction Publishers, 195–205.
- Moddelmog, Debra A. (2009), ‘Can Romantic Comedy Be Gay? Hollywood, Citizenship, and Same-Sex
Marriage Panic’, The Journal of Popular Film and Television, 36: 4, 162–73.
- MacDowell, James (2013) ‘Happy Endings and Ideology’ (portion), in Happy Endings in Hollywood
Cinema: Cliché, Convention and the Final Couple, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 169-90.
- Rich, B. Ruby (2013) New Queer Cinema: The Director's Cut, London: Duke University Press.
- Stacey, Jackie (1995) ‘“If You Don’t Play You Can’t Win”: Desert Hearts and the Lesbian Romance
Film’ in Tamsin Wilton (ed.), Immortal, Invisible: Lesbians and the Moving Image, London: Routledge.
- Yeatman, Bevin (2008) ‘Who Laughs? A Moment of Laughter in Shortbus’, P.O.V: A Danish Journal of
Film Studies 26, http://pov.imv.au.dk/Issue_26/section_1/artc7A.html.
10WEEK 10 Student choice:
Her (2013) or Appropriate Behaviour (2014) or…
…Obvious Child (2014) or Love, Simon (2018)
SOME GENERAL RECOMMENDED READING:
Abbott, Stacey & Deborah Jermyn (eds.), Falling in Love Again: Romantic Comedy in Contemporary
Cinema, London: I. B. Tauris.
Babbington, Bruce & Peter Evans (1989) Affairs to Remember: The Hollywood Comedy of the Sexes.
Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Barash, David P., Judith Eve Lipton (2001) The Myth of Monogamy: Fidelity and Infidelity in Animals and
People, New York: Henry Holt & Co.
Boone, Joseph Allen (1987) Tradition, Counter-Tradition: Love and the Form of Fiction, London:
University of Chicago Press.
Brunovska, Kristine Karnick & Henry Jenkins (eds.) (1995) Classical Hollywood Comedy, London:
Routledge.
11Deleyto, Celestino & Peter Williams Evans (eds.) (1998) Terms of Endearment: Hollywood Romantic
Comedies of the 80s and 90s. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Deleyto, Celestino (2009) The Secret Life of Romantic Comedy, Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Ferris, Suzanne & Mallory Young (Eds.) (2007) Chick Flicks: Contemporary Women at the Movies,
London: Routledge.
Giddens, Anthony (1992) The Transformation of Intimacy: Sexuality, Love & Eroticism in Modern
Societies. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Harvey, James (1987) Romantic Comedy in Hollywood, from Lubitsch to Sturges. London: Da Capo Press.
McDonald, Tamar Jeffers (2007) Romantic Comedy: Boy Meets Girl Meets Genre. London: Wallflower.
Mernit, Billy (2000) Writing the Romantic Comedy, New York: Harpur Collins.
Modleski, Tania (1982) Loving With a Vengeance: Mass-Produced Fantasies for Women, Hamden:
Archon Books.
Pillai, Nicolas (2012) ‘The Happy Couple: American Marriages in Hollywood Films, 1934–1948’, PhD
thesis, University of Warwick.
Radway, Janice (1991) Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy and Popular Literature, University of
North Carolina Press.
Rowe, Kathleen (1995) The Unruly Woman: Gender and the Genres of Laughter. Austin: University of
Texas Press.
Saunders, Corrine (Ed.) (2004) A Companion to Romance: From Classical to Contemporary. Ed.. Oxford:
Blackwell Publishing.
Swidler, Anne (2003) Talk of Love: How Culture Matters, London: University of Chicago Press.
Wartenberg, Thomas E. (1999) Unlikely Couples: Movie Romance as Social Criticism. Oxford: Westview.
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