ABSTRACT
Probably because Aristotle’s treatise on comedy has been lost, the Western tradition has not afforded comedy the same dignity as that granted to the genre of tragedy. In his The Name of the Rose, however, Umberto Eco (1980) made the missing second book of Aristotle a key text within his text, found at last only to be devoured (literally eaten) by a monk. Eco suggests that Aristotle’s treatise on comedy was too disruptive to the teachings of Christianity because comedy uses the word to tells things differently, as if lying. Seen in this light, comedy obliges us to examine how things are metaphorically rather than literally. Comedy instructs, but differently. Whereas tragedy uses fear to achieve catharsis, comedy uses laughter to distract fear. What is marginal thus leaps to the center. Margins, freedoms,
dung heap. Comedy is a celebration, a festival, a multitude, a generosity. Unlike tragedy,
to our relating selves. Comedy, thus, because it is about relationship and not imitation, is thereby a genre entirely suited for the postmodern classroom as well as for a postmodern spirituality.
