Eccentric Laughter by Benedict Morrison

Eccentric Laughter by Benedict Morrison

Dispels the idea that postwar British comedies were apolitical, arguing instead that they presented subversive, iconoclastic, queer experiments in living for a country that was rebuilding and reimagining itself after years of conflict.

Eccentric Laughter explores new ways to watch postwar British film comedies, arguing that their representations of eccentricity offered a set of possible queer futures for a Britain that had been destabilized by years of conflict and social upheaval. Far from being the apolitical cinema described by previous critics, these comedies-including both perennial favorites from Ealing Studios and neglected films ripe for rediscovery-make a joke of and suggest alternatives to the heterocentric home and family. Referencing a wide range of theories, the book gives details of how these films' comic queernesses are not structured on fixed identities but on an open play of possibilities, depicting eccentricity, artifice, drag, ruins, and the wild in ways that can still offer inspiration for experiments in living today. Engaging with contemporary queer theories and politics, the book argues that these films continue to address questions of urgent relevance to students and other viewers in the twenty-first century. Films discussed include The Belles of St. Trinian's, Genevieve, The Lavender Hill Mob, Simon and Laura, The Stranger Left No Card, and Young Wives' Tale.

"Eccentric Laughter offers a refreshing and stimulating look at postwar British comedies, informed by insights from diverse critical theories and perspectivesMorrison writes in an engaging prose style that generates both an infectious enthusiasm about the films as well as an ongoing dialogue of critical reappraisal." — Sarah Street, University of Bristol

Benedict Morrison is Senior Lecturer in Literature and Film at the University of Exeter. He is the author of Complicating Articulation in Art Cinema.