Research Catalog

American humor : a study of the national character / Constance Rourke ; introduction by Greil Marcus.

Title
American humor : a study of the national character / Constance Rourke ; introduction by Greil Marcus.
Author
Rourke, Constance, 1885-1941.
Publication
New York : New York Review Books, c2004.

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Additional Authors
Marcus, Greil
Description
xxiv, 253 p.; 21 cm.
Summary
"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."--BOOK JACKET.
Series Statement
New York Review Books classics
Uniform Title
New York Review Books classics
Subject
  • American wit and humor > History and criticism
  • National characteristics, American, in literature
  • American literature > History and criticism
  • National characteristics, American
Genre/Form
Criticism, interpretation, etc.
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references (p. [237]-244) and index.
Processing Action (note)
  • committed to retain
Contents
Corn cobs twist your hair -- The gamecock of the wilderness -- That long-tail'd blue -- Strollers -- The comic poet -- Hear America singing -- Facing west from California's shores -- The American -- Round up.
ISBN
1590170792 (Pbk. : alk. paper)
LCCN
^^2003025878
OCLC
  • 53824167
  • SCSB-10594334
Owning Institutions
Harvard Library