The Poetics and Politics of Invective Humor: Disparagement in Contemporary Female-Led US Sitcoms (American Culture Studies)

Vituperation, disparagement, and debasement seem to have become part of the mainstream discourse in contemporary US-American media culture. Zooming in on a distinct televisual comedy genre, Katja Schulze explores the formal principles, media-specific realizations, and the cultural work of disparagement in contemporary female-led situation comedies. Subsequently, larger patterns of (gender-based) invective strategies and conventions that define the dynamism of this comedic genre come into view. Her study outlines case studies of popular sitcoms, like Parks and Recreation, Mike & Molly, and the revival of hit-sitcom Roseanne, thereby unearthing how the shows are able to stage humor as mass-mediated deprecation – a signifying practice with its own poetics and politics.

Katja Schulze, born in 1989, studied American and German Studies at the Universities of Dresden and Nashville (TN, USA). After finishing her Master's degree in American Studies, she received her doctorate at and became a member of TU Dresden and University of Leipzig's Special Research Unit »Invectivity. Constellations and Dynamics of Disparagement« funded by the German Research Foundation. Her research focuses on US American popular culture, especially television studies.