Judith Yaross Lee
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- March 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781617036439
- eISBN:
- 9781621030577
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781617036439.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 19th Century Literature
Samuel L. Clemens lost the 1882 lawsuit declaring his exclusive right to use “Mark Twain” as a commercial trademark, but he succeeded in the marketplace, where synergy among his comic journalism, ...
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Samuel L. Clemens lost the 1882 lawsuit declaring his exclusive right to use “Mark Twain” as a commercial trademark, but he succeeded in the marketplace, where synergy among his comic journalism, live performances, authorship, and entrepreneurship made “Mark Twain” the premier national and international brand of American humor in his day. So it remains in ours, because Mark Twain’s humor not only expressed views of self and society well ahead of its time, but also anticipated ways in which humor and culture coalesce in today’s postindustrial information economy—the global trade in media, performances, and other forms of intellectual property that began after the Civil War. This book traces four hallmarks of Twain’s humor that are especially significant today. Mark Twain’s invention of a stage persona comically conflated with his biographical self lives on in contemporary performances by Garrison Keillor, Margaret Cho, Jerry Seinfeld, and Jon Stewart. The postcolonial critique of Britain that underlies America’s nationalist tall tale tradition not only self-destructs in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court but also drives the critique of American Exceptionalism in Philip Roth’s literary satires. The semi-literate writing that gives Adventures of Huckleberry Finn its “vernacular vision”—wrapping cultural critique in ostensibly innocent transgressions and misunderstandings—has a counterpart in the apparently untutored drawing style and social critique seen in The Simpsons, Lynda Barry’s comics, and The Boondocks.Less
Samuel L. Clemens lost the 1882 lawsuit declaring his exclusive right to use “Mark Twain” as a commercial trademark, but he succeeded in the marketplace, where synergy among his comic journalism, live performances, authorship, and entrepreneurship made “Mark Twain” the premier national and international brand of American humor in his day. So it remains in ours, because Mark Twain’s humor not only expressed views of self and society well ahead of its time, but also anticipated ways in which humor and culture coalesce in today’s postindustrial information economy—the global trade in media, performances, and other forms of intellectual property that began after the Civil War. This book traces four hallmarks of Twain’s humor that are especially significant today. Mark Twain’s invention of a stage persona comically conflated with his biographical self lives on in contemporary performances by Garrison Keillor, Margaret Cho, Jerry Seinfeld, and Jon Stewart. The postcolonial critique of Britain that underlies America’s nationalist tall tale tradition not only self-destructs in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court but also drives the critique of American Exceptionalism in Philip Roth’s literary satires. The semi-literate writing that gives Adventures of Huckleberry Finn its “vernacular vision”—wrapping cultural critique in ostensibly innocent transgressions and misunderstandings—has a counterpart in the apparently untutored drawing style and social critique seen in The Simpsons, Lynda Barry’s comics, and The Boondocks.
Teresas Toguchi Swartz, Douglas Hartmann, and Jeylan T. Smortimer
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520270923
- eISBN:
- 9780520950184
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520270923.003.0003
- Subject:
- Sociology, Population and Demography
This chapter investigates round interviews with participants from the St. Paul study to explore how young adults in the Land of Lake Wobegon understand and experience these diverse pathways and ...
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This chapter investigates round interviews with participants from the St. Paul study to explore how young adults in the Land of Lake Wobegon understand and experience these diverse pathways and trajectories. St. Paul is the capital city of a prosperous and generally progressive upper-midwestern state. It is comparatively homogenous, has a strong economy, and boasts excellent public schools and generous welfare benefits. The city has also high levels of religious identification, participation, and belief, and a long history of civic participation and public consciousness. St. Paul appears very much like Garrison Keillor's mythical Lake Wobegon: a community where everyone seems to be nice, normal, and slightly above average. Young adults in St. Paul extract a surprisingly broad orientation and commitment to family and community as aspects of adulthood that may be protective in view of the divergent and disruptive aspects of modern trajectories into adulthood.Less
This chapter investigates round interviews with participants from the St. Paul study to explore how young adults in the Land of Lake Wobegon understand and experience these diverse pathways and trajectories. St. Paul is the capital city of a prosperous and generally progressive upper-midwestern state. It is comparatively homogenous, has a strong economy, and boasts excellent public schools and generous welfare benefits. The city has also high levels of religious identification, participation, and belief, and a long history of civic participation and public consciousness. St. Paul appears very much like Garrison Keillor's mythical Lake Wobegon: a community where everyone seems to be nice, normal, and slightly above average. Young adults in St. Paul extract a surprisingly broad orientation and commitment to family and community as aspects of adulthood that may be protective in view of the divergent and disruptive aspects of modern trajectories into adulthood.
