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Mark Twain?s Helpful Hints for Good Livingby Mark Twain; Lin Salamo; Michael B. Frank; Victor Fischer
University of California Press 2004; US$ 24.95Irreverent, charming, eminently quotable, this handbook?an eccentric etiquette guide for the human race?contains sixty-nine aphorisms, anecdotes, whimsical suggestions, maxims, and cautionary tales from Mark Twain's private and published writings. It dispenses advice and reflections on family life and public manners; opinions on topics such as dress, health, food, and childrearing and safety; and more specialized tips, such as those for dealing with annoying salesmen and burglars. Culled from Twain's personal letters, autobiographical writings, speeches, novels, and sketches, these pieces are delightfully fresh, witty, startlingly relevant, and bursting with Twain's characteristic ebullience for life. They also remind us exactly how Mark Twain... more...
American Humorby Arthur Power Dudden
Oxford University Press 1987; US$ 25.00Among the questions posed by this collection of essays are: What are the characteristics of American humor? How have they evolved and expressed themselves? What elements are distinctively or uniquely American? more...
Necessary Madnessby Gregg Camfield
Oxford University Press 1997; US$ 135.00This work offers an examination of the ways humour was used by major fiction writers in 19th-century America. It argues that humour served as an important tool to manage the ideology of domesticity so prevalent at the time, and shows how gender comes to bear upon comic techniques and sensibilities. more...
American Humoristsby Willard Thorp
University of Minnesota Press 1964; US$ 36.00AMERICANS, in the early days, imported much of their humor and made it over. Addison and Steele were influential; Dickens had his American imitators. Baron Munchausen's adventures were particularly popular in this country. Many of his tales disappeared into American folklore and rose again as transformed American tall tales. more...
Very Serious Thingby Nancy A. Walker
University of Minnesota Press 1988; US$ 54.00Defines why women have been blocked from participating in the mainstream of American comedy yet have overcome hurdles to produce a humor that is sustaining and spells survival for women in society. more...
Calvinist Humor in American Literatureby Michael Dunne
LSU Press 2007; US$ 37.50Though the phrase "Calvinist humor" may seem to be an oxymoron, Michael Dunne, in highly original and unfailingly interesting readings of major American fiction writers, uncovers and traces two recurrent strands of Calvinist humor descending from Puritan times far into the twentieth century. Calvinist doctrine views mankind as fallen, apt to engage in any number of imperfect behaviors. Calvinist humor, Dunne explains, consists in the perception of this imperfection. When we perceive that only others are imperfect, we participate in the form of Calvinist humor preferred by William Bradford and Nathanael West. When we perceive that others are imperfect, as we all are, we participate in the form preferred by Mark Twain and William Faulkner,... more...
Revel with a Causeby Stephen E. Kercher
University of Chicago Press 2010; US$ 21.00We live in a time much like the postwar era. A time of arch political conservatism and vast social conformity. A time in which our nation’s leaders question and challenge the patriotism of those who oppose their policies. But before there was Jon Stewart, Al Franken, or Bill Maher, there were Mort Sahl, Stan Freberg, and Lenny Bruce—liberal satirists who, through their wry and scabrous comedic routines, waged war against the political ironies, contradictions, and hypocrisies of their times. Revel with a Cause is their story. Stephen Kercher here provides the first comprehensive look at the satiric humor that flourished in the United States during the 1950s and early 1960s. Focusing on an impressive range of comedy—not... more...
On the Real Sideby Mel Watkins
Lawrence Hill Books 1999; US$ 21.95Through laughing, lying, and signifying, the underground tradition of African American humour continues to transform American culture. This comprehensive history discusses black face minstrelsy, Stephin Fetchit, and the Amos 'n' Andy show; folktales, race records, and all-black shows and films; Bert Williams, Moms Mabley, and Redd Foxx; Richard Pryor, Whoopi Goldberg, and Eddie Murphy. Here, in a second edition featuring a new afterword, is the definitive account of how black humour has sustained African Americans throughout their history. more...
Newsloreby Russell Frank
University Press of Mississippi 2011; US$ 55.00Newslore is folklore that comments on and hinges on knowledge of current events. These expressions come in many forms: jokes, urban legends, digitally altered photographs, mock news stories, press releases or interoffice memoranda, parodies of songs, poems, political and commercial advertisements, movie previews and posters, still or animated cartoons, and short live-action films. In Newslore: Folklore on the Internet and in the News, author Russell Frank offers a snapshot of the items of newslore disseminated via the Internet that gained the widest currency around the turn of the millennium. Among the newsmakers lampooned in e-mails and on the Web were Bill and Hillary Clinton, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein,... more...
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