… my goal is to make a case in favor of awkwardness, arguing that it holds a certain promise and that in some cases radical awkwardness can be a good thing, not only something we can tolerate but something we can embrace.
In order to get to this counterintuitive conclusion, I will be employing the dialectic form of argument, most commonly associated with the name of another German philosopher, G. W. F. Hegel…
My investigation of everyday awkwardness in the context of work will focus on The Office, in both its original and US versions. For the cultural awkwardness associated with the problem of family life and coming of age, I will look at the films of Judd Apatow, centered as they are on the travails of “overgrown adolescents.” Finally, for the radical awkwardness represented first of all by cross-cultural tensions, I will look at Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm.