What makes a picture funny, and how as art historians and
students of American culture can we take humor seriously?
	In  this seminar we will attempt  to come to theoretical,
interpretative, and critical grips with the under-studied and still
largely unexamined corpus of American comic art, its producers, its
consumers, and its cultural functions, beginning in the 18th century
and continuing through at least the first half of the twentieth, and
comprising all media, from painting to political caricature,
cartoons, popular prints, trade cards, posters, advertising,
illustration, comics, photography, and assorted ephemera. We will
attempt to define and analyze the mechanisms of irony, satire,
parody, slapstick, whimsy, and wit, explore the realms of cuteness
and the grotesque, and survey the borderlines where humor shades
into disgust and fear.  Course work, in addition to weekly
discussions of issues and readings, will include  short-term mini-
projects  and a longer research report and paper.