Comic Structure of Subjectivity
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#01
Only a Joke Can Save Us: A Theory of Comedy · Todd McGowan · p.26
The Similar and the Dissimilar > The Comic Structure of Subjectivity
Theoretical move: McGowan argues that subjectivity is constitutively comic because lack and excess are not opposed but structurally identical: the speaking being's constitutive lack (entry into language) is precisely what generates excessive attachment to unavailable objects, and comedy's function is to make this traumatic coincidence visible against the everyday logic that keeps them apart.
subjectivity itself is inherently comic, but subjects plunge themselves into everyday life and its separation of lack and excess in order to avoid confronting their traumatic intersection.