Lisa Trahair is Senior Lecturer in Film Studies at the University of New South Wales.

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction

1. The Comedy of Philosophy: Hegel, Bataille, and Derrida

2. Restricted and General Economy: Narrative, Gag and Slapstick in One Week

3. The Machine of Comedy: Gunning, Deleuze, and Buster Keaton

4. Fool's Gold: Metamorphoses in Sherlock Jr.

5. Jokes and Their Relation to...

6. The Comic: Degradation and Refinement in 1920s Cinematic Slapstick 

7. From Words to Images (Gagging)

8. Figural Vision: Freud, Lyotard, and City Lights

9. Preposterous Figurality: Comic Cinema and Bad Metaphor