"Contagious Humour"

Scott MacKenzie, Professor and Associate Head, Department of Film and Media, Queen’s University

When neighboring Norway banned Monty Python’s Life of Brian in 1979 on the grounds of blasphemy, Sweden advertised the film under the tagline: “So funny they banned it in Norway.” While various factions of the religious right were incensed by the film, one could still see the humor in the Swedish advertising campaign. Yet, in the current context, it might be easy to resign oneself to the cliché that the present is no laughing matter. COVID has no doubt led to a series of personal, social, and mental health issues, especially in regard to feelings of connectivity in a world facing a pandemic, systemic racism, political upheaval and a climate crisis. In a world that can seem so oppressive, forlorn, and abject in the face of any action often seemingly impossible, what positive role does laughing play in this regard? This talk will address some of the forms of laughing and humor as resistance, especially in regard to what the French Marxist philosopher Guy Debord theorized as détournement. Drawing on theories of humor developed by Simon Critchley and Terry Eagleton, this talk will explore how humor can undermine spectacularization in the time of COVID, where humor becomes a form of both defamiliarization and truth telling. 

FREE EVENT but registration is required.

The Diseased Horde: Anti-Asian Racism from the 19th Century to COVID-19

Ali Na, Assistant Professor in the Department of Film and Media at Queen’s University

Anti-Asian discourses during COVID-19 are nothing new. Rather, they are media representations that have been repeated in the US and Canada since at least the 19th Century. Through these continually reemerging formations, Asians and Asian North Americans have been depicted as a diseased horde. Collapsing ethnicity and nationality, these images have sutured animality and impurity onto Asianness. Just as these racist imaginings have been “naturalized” through dominant cultural code, they have also been mobilized to spread hate through a public fear of contamination. From 19th Century print to 20th Century film and 21st Century digital culture, Anti-Asian sentiments have been fomented through eating taboos, charges of sexual aberration, and exotification. Trope frames North American culture, making new discourses appear true for both conservative and liberal members of society alike. Asians “as vectors of disease” resonates across society, creating the ideal conditions for both structural and interpersonal exclusions. 

FREE EVENT but registration is required.