...W. Michael Kelsey The Human Comedy of Heian Japan: A Study of the Secular Stories in the Twelfth-Century Collection of Tales ., Konjaku Monogatarishū. By Hiroko Kobayashi . Tokyo : The Centre for East Asian Cultural Studies , 1979 . East Asia Cultural Studies, No. 19. xv, 359 pp...

...Timothy Thurston Abstract Comedy is a powerful tool for public meditation on and critique of lived experience and discursive practice. In China's post-Mao period, comedy also provided a means for Tibetan intellectuals to access state-sponsored stages and airwaves in minority-dominated Northwest...

...: Harvard University Asia Center, 1998. xvii, 253 pp. $40.00. With most scholarly writing on comedy being dull, dull, dull, the front cover of Joel Cohn's slim volume gives reason for hope. The juxtaposition of "studies" and "comic spirit" in the title, with its oxymoronic, mock-formalism, holds the promise...

... THE JOURNAL OF ASIAN STUDIES does not guarantee the safe transplantation of Japanese comedy into English. The line "Whadda yah wanna go ovah to Okano's foah? Cause I think Okano's son is an arse" (p. 60), less conveys Ibuse's much-touted local color than it ratines White's caution against rendering dialect...

... of the outstanding plays, many of which possess dramatic power and beauty together with romantic, poetic and literary qualities not unlike those of the American musical comedy of today" (p. i). This statement immediately raises several questions: How far do Ming plays really resemble American musical comedies? Do...

... area of Indian literature. Siegel's book is divided into four sections: (1) a prologue in which he uses the comic tradition in ancient India to discuss the comedy and psychology of laughter; (2) a section on satire, which he defines as "an aesthetic mode of attack, directed against culturally esteemed...

..., Los Angeles Studies in the Comic Spirit in Modern Japanese Fiction. By JOEL R. C O H N . Harvard-Yenching Institute Monograph Series, 41. Cambridge: Harvard University Asia Center, 1998. xvii, 253 pp. $40.00. With most scholarly writing on comedy being dull, dull, dull, the front cover of Joel Cohn's...

... THE JOURNAL OF ASIAN STUDIES ensuing action is accessible to all, revealing the comedy of universal human deficiency. In writing of the "aesthetics oi kyogen," Kobatake offers what is in effect a comparative study of the reasons for such an appeal. His afterword explains his desire to compare kyogen...

..., is "to present a comprehensive view of Ming drama through a careful survey of the outstanding plays, many of which possess dramatic power and beauty together with romantic, poetic and literary qualities not unlike those of the American musical comedy of today" (p. i). This statement immediately raises several...

..., and the paradox of Rendra's great popularity among young, urban Indonesians and his declining reputation among Indonesian critics and writers. In the first place, The Struggle is obviously (even if unavowedly) meant as an Aristophanic comedy about contemporary Indonesia. It pits the corrupt, diseased, greedy...

... for Asian Studies, Inc. 1987 1987 412 THE JOURNAL OF ASIAN STUDIES ensuing action is accessible to all, revealing the comedy of universal human deficiency. In writing of the "aesthetics oi kyogen," Kobatake offers what is in effect a comparative study of the reasons for such an appeal. His afterword...

...; and negative. Discussing four ofJhabvala's nov- $3.00 els as essentially social comedies, he sees their This slim volume includes six papers deliv- affirmation in their very comedy and in their so- ered at a seminar (Institute of Historical Stud- cial, domestic, and cultural efforts at com- ies, Calcutta...

... and the commonplace. Raine places Ichikawa's The Punishment Room within the context of the 1950s taiyozoku movement, in unexpected anticipation of the Japanese New Wave. Russell details how the director of dark comedy could comfortably portray the world-view of a toddler. Gerow gives a valuable overview of the movie...

... of the British Film Institute, traces the star-director's own negotiation between his public face as a television and comedy celebrity (“Beat Takeshi”) and that of a cinematic auteur (“Kitano Takeshi”). Kitano's manipulation of his own image informs much of Gerow's analysis of what makes the filmmaker's work so...

... els as essentially social comedies, he sees their This slim volume includes six papers deliv- affirmation in their very comedy and in their so- ered at a seminar (Institute of Historical Stud- cial, domestic, and cultural efforts at com- ies, Calcutta) on "the causes, process and extent promise...

... Survey. EDITED BY S. P. SEN. Calcutta: Institute of Historical Studies, 1973. 97 pp. Rs. 12.00; and negative. Discussing four ofJhabvala's nov- $3.00 els as essentially social comedies, he sees their This slim volume includes six papers deliv- affirmation in their very comedy and in their so- ered...

..., of their superficiality. The mode of these stories is comedy, or Chekhovian tragicomedy, which, to be sure, depends to some extent on a ready recognition of what is typical and expected, but its effectiveness must depend on the way it is set off by what is neither typical nor expected. Most often Mrs. Jhabvala settles...

..., as types, it should be noted that the Europeans for the most part are as easily identifiable, an indication, perhaps, of their superficiality. The mode of these stories is comedy, or Chekhovian tragicomedy, which, to be sure, depends to some extent on a ready recognition of what is typical and expected...

.... Looking back over the classification of Yuan opera by subject matter, one should be struck forcibly by the lack of a niche for comedy. If not comedies of manners, or comedies of errors as in the West, surely there must be buffoonery, burlesque, or recognizable ribaldry? The one-hundred pieces in YCH...

... literature. Siegel's book is divided into four sections: (1) a prologue in which he uses the comic tradition in ancient India to discuss the comedy and psychology of laughter; (2) a section on satire, which he defines as "an aesthetic mode of attack, directed against culturally esteemed objects...