Latterlig ufarlig? Kjønnsperspektiv på 1600-tallskomedier

Abstract

This article focuses on gender in 17th centry comedy in France and England. It challenges the opinion that women, through literature in general and comedy in particular, are victimized as targets of men's humour. Having identifiefd what triggers the audience's laughter in four comedies by Moliere, John Dryden and Aphra Behn, these findings are discussed in a gender perspective. What makes us laugh are the roles that a person takes, rather than the gender of the person in question. The form of comedy is feministic, offering an arena where the inferior may challenge the superior. The stigmatizing fact that comedy has been understood as an inferior form of drama, and therefor not been taken seriously, is ironically enough the very reason why it was permitted to question the superior without being a threat to the established order. This feministic quality applies to comedies written by men as well as by women.