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.
Jane W. Davidson
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780199679485
- eISBN:
- 9780191759994
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199679485.003.0020
- Subject:
- Psychology, Music Psychology
This chapter focuses on the topic of music performer identity, exploring three contemporary categories of performer: famous soloists in western classical music and popular music traditions, music ...
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This chapter focuses on the topic of music performer identity, exploring three contemporary categories of performer: famous soloists in western classical music and popular music traditions, music ensemble players from the two traditions, and amateurs taking part in community music activities. This particular coverage permits investigation of the ways in which personal characteristics and social frameworks entwine with the music and today’s performance contexts. The chapter is situated in a social constructionist view that our selfhood emerges through the systems available to us in our social and cultural milieu in relation to the roles we enact such as parenting, or as in this chapter’s topic of specific concern, being a music performer. The work presented draws on data that emerged from verbal discourse, but also draws heavily on filmed and live performance and refers to non-verbal analysis since this is also a primary means through, which performance identity is mediated.Less
This chapter focuses on the topic of music performer identity, exploring three contemporary categories of performer: famous soloists in western classical music and popular music traditions, music ensemble players from the two traditions, and amateurs taking part in community music activities. This particular coverage permits investigation of the ways in which personal characteristics and social frameworks entwine with the music and today’s performance contexts. The chapter is situated in a social constructionist view that our selfhood emerges through the systems available to us in our social and cultural milieu in relation to the roles we enact such as parenting, or as in this chapter’s topic of specific concern, being a music performer. The work presented draws on data that emerged from verbal discourse, but also draws heavily on filmed and live performance and refers to non-verbal analysis since this is also a primary means through, which performance identity is mediated.
Paola Capriolo
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300095302
- eISBN:
- 9780300129694
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300095302.003.0016
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
This chapter presents a famous stage persona—the protagonist of Paola Capriolo's novel Vissi d'amore. The Italian title is taken from one of Puccini's most famous arias, “Vissi d'arte, vissi ...
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This chapter presents a famous stage persona—the protagonist of Paola Capriolo's novel Vissi d'amore. The Italian title is taken from one of Puccini's most famous arias, “Vissi d'arte, vissi d'amore,” which Tosca sings in the second act of the opera that bears her name. Capriolo's novel, however, is not a readaptation of the libretto but is based instead on a fictional document: the diary of Baron Scarpia, the chief of police who investigates and arrests Tosca's lover, Mario Cavaradossi. In Capriolo's fiction, inspired by such classic models as Musil, Kafka, and Dostoyevsky, we find an avowed tendency to theatricalization. In Vissi d'amore, Tosca is Baron Scarpia's “obscure object of desire” and an object of torturous speculation on the holy-unholy mirroring of sin and power.Less
This chapter presents a famous stage persona—the protagonist of Paola Capriolo's novel Vissi d'amore. The Italian title is taken from one of Puccini's most famous arias, “Vissi d'arte, vissi d'amore,” which Tosca sings in the second act of the opera that bears her name. Capriolo's novel, however, is not a readaptation of the libretto but is based instead on a fictional document: the diary of Baron Scarpia, the chief of police who investigates and arrests Tosca's lover, Mario Cavaradossi. In Capriolo's fiction, inspired by such classic models as Musil, Kafka, and Dostoyevsky, we find an avowed tendency to theatricalization. In Vissi d'amore, Tosca is Baron Scarpia's “obscure object of desire” and an object of torturous speculation on the holy-unholy mirroring of sin and power.
