HIGH POINT, N.C., March 27, 2012 – Dr. Katherine Fowkes, professor of communication, recently presented research at two separate conferences and published an essay about slapstick comedy in silent films.
Her first presentation, “A Leap of Imagination: The Monstrous Rabbit in Night of the Lepus,” which was part of the International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts in Orlando, Fla., focused on the horror movie “Night of the Lepus.”
As part of her presentation, Fowkes explored the movie’s monstrous rabbits in the context of horror and humor, and considered script and special effect alternatives that may have improved the movie.
“From Beetlejuice to Big Fish: Tim Burton’s Trickster Figures,” which she presented at the University Film and Video Conference in Boston analyzed the characters in Tim Burton’s films and compared their similarities to traditional tricksters from myth and folktales.
Her essay, “The Silence of Slapstick: The Physical Comedy of Silent Cinema,” which was published in the “Studies in American Humor” journal, is a critical review of an anthology investigating the roots of silent film comedy, including some of the industrial and technological practices that influenced the genre’s formation.
“One of the interesting things I discuss in the essay concerns a central irony of silent film slapstick,” says Fowkes. “The term slapstick derives from a theatrical device whose slap causes no actual harm but which elicits audience laughter because of the exaggerated loud noise it makes. While that may seem a strange way to characterize silent film comedy, the term is still appropriate because it pertains to the physical humor that dominates these films.”
Fowkes adds that all of her scholarly research enriches her work in the classroom. “My classes such as Myth and Media explore fantasy films such as those covered in my conference presentations and my most recent book, “The Fantasy Film,” where I analyze comedic fantasy and trickster figures such as found in the movie Harvey. My Movies and Methods class traces the evolution of film from silent cinema to the present, thus benefiting from my ongoing engagement with historical scholarship. I share many of my findings with my students, and model for them the process of scholarly research and analysis.”
At High Point University, every student receives an extraordinary education in an inspiring environment with caring people.℠ HPU, located in the Piedmont Triad region of North Carolina, is a liberal arts institution with over 4,200 undergraduate and graduate students at campuses in High Point and Winston-Salem. It is ranked by US News and World Report at No. 3 among Regional Colleges in the South. Parade Magazine lists HPU in the top 25 private schools in the nation. HPU was selected in the 2010-2011 list of “Colleges of Distinction,” as well as one of the top green schools in the country by the Sierra Club. The university offers 44 undergraduate majors, 40 undergraduate minors and 10 graduate degree programs. It is a member of the NCAA, Division I and the Big South Conference. Visit High Point University on the Web at highpoint.edu.
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Pam Haynes
Communication Specialist
336-841-9055
[email protected]