Stanley Cavell at 100: The Awful Truth
Celebrate the legacy of Brookliner, philosopher, and cinephile Stanley Cavell with one of his personal favorites, a scintillating "comedy of remarriage" starring Cary Grant and Irene Dunne.
New York sophisticates Jerry and Lucy Warriner (Irene Dunne and Cary Grant in one of screwball comedy's great power couples) are heading toward an "amicable" divorce amid mutual suspicion and jealousy. Only one question remains before they finalize their detachment: Who gets the rights to Mr. Smith, their beloved terrier? As each of them seeks out a new partner (a society heiress and a nouveau riche oilman, respectively), Jerry and Lucy engage in an escalating war to see who can sabotage the other's aspirations to remarriage.
Stanley Cavell chose to conclude his defining study Pursuits of Happiness: The Hollywood Comedy of Remarriage with a lengthy study of The Awful Truth, praising its "...present[ation] of an unbroken line of comic development, a continuous unfolding of thought and of emotion..."
ABOUT STANLEY CAVELL AT 100
In 2026, we mark the centenary of Stanley Cavell (1926–2026), one of the most original and wide-ranging American philosophers of the twentieth century. Cavell’s work traversed traditional disciplinary boundaries—engaging deeply with philosophy, literature, film, opera, psychoanalysis, politics, and both American and European traditions of thought. In the spirit of his intellectual breadth and transnational sensibility, Stanley Cavell at 100 is an International Centennial Conference honoring the Cavell's monumental contributions, convening academic representatives from around the globe for three commemorative meetings in Paris, Rome, and Boston.
