| American Humor: A Study of the National Character Contributor(s): Rourke, Constance (Author), Marcus, Greil (Introduction by) |
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ISBN: 1590170792 ISBN-13: 9781590170793 Publisher: New York Review of Books OUR PRICE: $17.96 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: March 2004 Annotation: Rourke's pioneering "study of the national character" examines such legendary figures as the Yankee, the backwoodsman, the minstrel singer, and the stroller to show how the popular comic imagination has contributed to America's changing self-awareness. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Literary Criticism | Humor - Literary Criticism | American - General |
| Dewey: 817.009 |
| LCCN: 2003025878 |
| Series: New York Review Books Classics |
| Physical Information: 0.6" H x 5.1" W x 7.98" (0.61 lbs) 258 pages |
| Themes: - Geographic Orientation - New York - Cultural Region - Mid-Atlantic - Cultural Region - Northeast U.S. |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Stepping out of the darkness, the American emerges upon the stage of history as a new character, as puzzling to himself as to others. American Humor, Constance Rourke's pioneering "study of the national character," singles out the archetypal figures of the Yankee peddler, the backwoodsman, and the blackface minstrel to illuminate the fundamental role of popular culture in fashioning a distinctive American sensibility. A memorable performance in its own right, American Humor crackles with the jibes and jokes of generations while presenting a striking picture of a vagabond nation in perpetual self-pursuit. Davy Crockett and Henry James, Jim Crow and Emily Dickinson rub shoulders in a work that inspired such later critics as Pauline Kael and Lester Bangs and which still has much to say about the America of Bob Dylan and Thomas Pynchon, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. |