Mary s. Trent
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190458997
- eISBN:
- 9780190459024
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190458997.003.0003
- Subject:
- Social Work, Health and Mental Health
Grown men do not play with paper dolls; or, at least, they are not supposed to. Nevertheless, self-taught Chicago artist Henry Darger (1892–1973) worked over many decades to create an elaborate ...
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Grown men do not play with paper dolls; or, at least, they are not supposed to. Nevertheless, self-taught Chicago artist Henry Darger (1892–1973) worked over many decades to create an elaborate fictional world. This chapter examines a series of collage-paintings that Darger like created at mid-century to consider the significance of paper dolls to his art. It argues that domestic space and girlish crafts offered Darger opportunities for creative expression that were otherwise inaccessible to him in the public sphere due to his designation as a sexually degenerate man. In the privacy of his apartment, away from society’s judgments, Darger offered an alternative to the restrictive sexual norms of his time by celebrating ambiguously gendered children.Less
Grown men do not play with paper dolls; or, at least, they are not supposed to. Nevertheless, self-taught Chicago artist Henry Darger (1892–1973) worked over many decades to create an elaborate fictional world. This chapter examines a series of collage-paintings that Darger like created at mid-century to consider the significance of paper dolls to his art. It argues that domestic space and girlish crafts offered Darger opportunities for creative expression that were otherwise inaccessible to him in the public sphere due to his designation as a sexually degenerate man. In the privacy of his apartment, away from society’s judgments, Darger offered an alternative to the restrictive sexual norms of his time by celebrating ambiguously gendered children.
Peter R. Sattler
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781604734423
- eISBN:
- 9781621032236
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781604734423.003.0015
- Subject:
- Literature, Comics Studies
Cartoonists are aware of how comics can be easily forgotten, and thus have addressed “memory” as a central trope for discussing how their medium works, not only on the page but also in the minds of ...
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Cartoonists are aware of how comics can be easily forgotten, and thus have addressed “memory” as a central trope for discussing how their medium works, not only on the page but also in the minds of readers and creators. For example, Scott McCloud has argued that the power of cartooning stems from a mimetic similarity between the iconography of comic art and the contents of human memory. Chris Ware has also formalized the notion that “comics is about memory.” This chapter examines how memory is constructed in his comic strip “Building Stories,” focusing on the interplay between episodic, experiential, and narrative memory. It argues that memory is central to Ware’s comics, in which it is formally anatomized and re-encoded as a “feeling.” The chapter discusses remembering as a felt experience and how it resonates with Ware’s assertions about his artwork and its relation to readers’ psychological states. It also considers Ware’s central techniques for representing remembering in the 2003 strip titled “Paper Dolls.”Less
Cartoonists are aware of how comics can be easily forgotten, and thus have addressed “memory” as a central trope for discussing how their medium works, not only on the page but also in the minds of readers and creators. For example, Scott McCloud has argued that the power of cartooning stems from a mimetic similarity between the iconography of comic art and the contents of human memory. Chris Ware has also formalized the notion that “comics is about memory.” This chapter examines how memory is constructed in his comic strip “Building Stories,” focusing on the interplay between episodic, experiential, and narrative memory. It argues that memory is central to Ware’s comics, in which it is formally anatomized and re-encoded as a “feeling.” The chapter discusses remembering as a felt experience and how it resonates with Ware’s assertions about his artwork and its relation to readers’ psychological states. It also considers Ware’s central techniques for representing remembering in the 2003 strip titled “Paper Dolls.”
Cameron C. Nickels
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781604737479
- eISBN:
- 9781621032106
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781604737479.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
This book examines the various forms of comedic popular artifacts produced in America from 1861 to 1865, and looks at how wartime humor was created, disseminated, and received by both sides of the ...
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This book examines the various forms of comedic popular artifacts produced in America from 1861 to 1865, and looks at how wartime humor was created, disseminated, and received by both sides of the conflict. Song lyrics, newspaper columns, sheet music covers, illustrations, political cartoons, fiction, light verse, paper dolls, printed envelopes, and penny dreadful—from and for the Union and the Confederacy—are analyzed at length. The book argues that the war coincided with the rise of inexpensive mass printing in the United States and thus subsequently with the rise of the country’s widely distributed popular culture. As such, the war was as much a “paper war”—involving the use of publications to disseminate propaganda and ideas about the Union and the Confederacy’s positions—as one taking place on battlefields. Humor was a key element on both sides in deflating pretensions and establishing political stances (and ways of critiquing them). The book explores how the combatants portrayed Jefferson Davis and Abraham Lincoln, life on the home front, battles, and African Americans. It reproduces over sixty illustrations and texts created during the war, and provides close readings of these materials. At the same time, the book places this corpus of comedy in the context of wartime history, economies, and tactics. This comprehensive overview examines humor’s role in shaping and reflecting the cultural imagination of the nation during its most tumultuous period.Less
This book examines the various forms of comedic popular artifacts produced in America from 1861 to 1865, and looks at how wartime humor was created, disseminated, and received by both sides of the conflict. Song lyrics, newspaper columns, sheet music covers, illustrations, political cartoons, fiction, light verse, paper dolls, printed envelopes, and penny dreadful—from and for the Union and the Confederacy—are analyzed at length. The book argues that the war coincided with the rise of inexpensive mass printing in the United States and thus subsequently with the rise of the country’s widely distributed popular culture. As such, the war was as much a “paper war”—involving the use of publications to disseminate propaganda and ideas about the Union and the Confederacy’s positions—as one taking place on battlefields. Humor was a key element on both sides in deflating pretensions and establishing political stances (and ways of critiquing them). The book explores how the combatants portrayed Jefferson Davis and Abraham Lincoln, life on the home front, battles, and African Americans. It reproduces over sixty illustrations and texts created during the war, and provides close readings of these materials. At the same time, the book places this corpus of comedy in the context of wartime history, economies, and tactics. This comprehensive overview examines humor’s role in shaping and reflecting the cultural imagination of the nation during its most tumultuous period.
