The Analysis of Preston Sturges’ Comedy Romantics Based on Stanley Cavell’s Theory of Comdey of Remarriage

Salim Alaqeband, Basir; Fadaei, Majid

doi:10.22059/jfadram.2026.411443.616211

The Analysis of Preston Sturges’ Comedy Romantics Based on Stanley Cavell’s Theory of Comdey of Remarriage

Articles in Press

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Basir Salim Alaqeband ¹

Majid Fadaei ²

¹ Faculty of Art and Architecture, University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, Iran

² Department of Photography, Faculty of Visual Arts, Art University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran

10.22059/jfadram.2026.411443.616211

Abstract

In his influential book, The Pursuit of Happiness, Stanley Cavell classifies a group of Hollywood films from the early 1930s to the late 1940s as “Comedies of Remarriage,” which are considered a subgenre of “Romantic Comedy.” Cavell selects seven exemplary films to develop his ideas, one of which is Preston Sturges’s The Lady Eve (1940). On the other hand, based on various evidences, three other works by this great and controversial filmmaker of Hollywood’s Golden Age are known to be labeled as “Romantic Comedy”: The Palm Beach Story (1942), The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek (1944), and Unfaithfully Yours (1948). The aim of the present study is to investigate the generalizability of Cavell's theory to these three films and to identify the characteristics and qualities that the films reveal in this process. To this end, a descriptive-analytical method based on the foundations of genre theory in cinema and a combination of the views of Cavell and Northrop Frye has been used. In the end, the results obtained confirmed that the films in question are all largely consistent with the "Comedy of Remarriage" pattern and represent Sturges' ironic and antagonistic approach to genre, cinema, and society. This soon ended his prolific career.

Keywords

Comedy of Remarriage

Comedy Romantic

Perston Sturges

Genre

Irony

Subjects