Reconsidering remarriage: Stanley Cavell and the vicissitudes of genre

ABSTRACT In recent years, Stanley Cavell has become one of the canonical reference points for film scholars. In particular, his work on ‘comedies of remarriage’ has become one of the most fertile arenas of contemporary scholarship in film studies. However, Cavell’s work on remarriage comedy has rarely been subjected to criticism. For the most part, scholars interested in Cavell’s work on remarriage comedy have either sought to elaborate on his readings of the seven principal films which for him make up the core of the genre, or they have sought to expand the genre by incorporating additional classical or contemporary Hollywood romantic comedies. In this article, I reconsider Cavell’s canonical work on the subject, and critique and provide alternatives to what are to my mind the most pressing problems in Cavell’s conception of remarriage comedy, problems which fall into three broad categories: theoretical problems, historical problems, and critical problems. In so doing, I hope to provide better theoretical models, broader historical understanding, and more nuanced criticism vis-à-vis the genre of remarriage comedy in and beyond classical Hollywood cinema.