The UTC Graduate School is pleased to announce that Alaynna Bromley will present Master’s research titled, Laugh or Cry, We’re All Going to Die: An Existentialist’s Comparative Genre Study of Horror and Comedy in English Literature and Cinema on 03/19/2026 at 3:00 PM in Lupton 372. Everyone is invited to attend.
English
Chair: Dr. Matthew Guy
Co-Chair:
Abstract:
This thesis aims to explore the shrinking line between comedy and horror in an increasingly postmodern world to illustrate how theory often reserved for horror cinema and literature could be expanded to include seemingly disparate genres like comedy. After laying a broad historical breakdown of relevant English filmmaking from the 1970s-present day, this paper will explore relevant theory to the study, explore some notable auteurs and their representative works alongside the comedy of Woody Allen, before positing a better contemporary approach to horror studies. Such a prescription will inevitably involve an embrace of avantgarde filmmaking strategies, namely as practiced by auteurs like Stan Brakhage, Maya Deren and Kenneth Anger, to suggest that increasingly technical and original cinematography is necessitated by the current artistic climate.