Comedy, from social ridicule to the unruly laughter of the carnival,                  provides effective tools for reinforcing social patterns of domination as well as                  weapons for emancipation. In Irony in the Age of Empire, Cynthia Willett asks: What                  could embody liberation better than laughter? Why do the oppressed laugh? What                  vision does the comic world prescribe? For Willett, the comic trumps standard                  liberal accounts of freedom by drawing attention to bodies, affects, and intimate                  relationships, topics which are usually neglected by political philosophy. Willett's                  philosophical reflection on comedy issues a powerful challenge to standard                  conceptions of freedom by proposing a new kind of freedom that is unapologetically                  feminist, queer, and multiracial. This book provides a wide-ranging, original,                  thoughtful, and expansive discussion of citizenship, social manners, and political                  freedom in our world today.

Irony in the Age of Empire: Comic Perspectives on Democracy and Freedom (American Philosophy) PDF

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