Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A film, television show, or theatrical work combining elements of tragedy and comedy.
- noun The genre made up of such works.
- noun An incident or situation having both comic and tragic elements.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
drama that combines elements oftragedy andcomedy .
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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Does Irving move his readers in both directions, toward the comedy and the tragedy as the term tragicomedy implies?
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Marion Cotillard is set to lead Les Petits Mouchoirs, in what is described as Variety as a "tragicomedy", whatever the hell that is!
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In 1661, in a vulgar "tragicomedy" entitled _The Presbyterian Lash_, we find:
Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 3 Analysis of the Sexual Impulse; Love and Pain; The Sexual Impulse in Women Havelock Ellis 1899
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He also returned to the pastoral play in the _Serra da Estrella_, while his exquisite lyrism flowers afresh in the _Triunfo do Inverno_, a tragicomedy which is really a medley of farces.
Four Plays of Gil Vicente Gil Vicente 1501
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It also discusses questions of genre and reception, rejecting such descriptions as 'tragicomedy' or 'romantic tragedy', and showing how later artists have responded to Euripides 'unorthodox heroine and her phantom double.
Fabula : à la une 2009
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Despite the rather grim scenario, Stanescu's self-described "tragicomedy" has much more humor than despair.
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Starring Dunham and her real-life family, Tiny Furniture is tragicomedy about what does and does not happen when you graduate with no skills, no love life, and a lot of free time.
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But as Burress prepares for his release, we might as well point out one last layer of ludicrousness: how much money this football tragicomedy has cost the state of New Jersey.
The Real Cost of Plaxico's Jail Term Aditi Kinkhabwala 2011
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But "The Diary of a Madman" is an ambiguous tragicomedy without a bottom line.
Too Much of a Good Thing Terry Teachout 2011
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The Pregnant Widow, described by its publisher as a tragicomedy, follows the lives of six young people spending a long, hot summer holiday in an Italian castle during the sexual revolution and the “sea change” of 1970.
jwjarvis commented on the word tragicomedy
One of the tragicomedies of American education is the tenure system.
April 2, 2011