Humor and Masculinity in U.S. Fiction offers a pragmatic and theoretically informed model for analyzing how humor and gender intersect in key U.S. texts, bringing much-needed attention to the complex ways that humor can support and/or subvert reductive masculine codes and behaviors. Its argument builds upon three major humor theories – the incongruity theory, superiority theory, and relief theory – to analyze how humor is used to negotiate the shifting constructions of masculinity and manhood in American culture and literature. Focusing on explicit textual references to joking, pranks, and laughter, Humor and Masculinity in U.S. Fiction offers well-supported, original interpretations of works by Mark Twain, Owen Wister, Dorothy Parker, Zora Neale Hurston, Joseph Heller, Philip Roth, and Sherman Alexie. The primary goal of Humor and Masculinity in U.S. Fiction is to understand the multiple ways that humor performs and interrogates masculinity in seminal U.S. texts.

eBook - ePub
Humor and Masculinity in U.S. Fiction
Intersections, Performances, and Functions
- 296 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
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Table of contents
- Cover
- Half Title
- Series Page
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication
- Table of Contents
- Introduction – Humor and Masculinity in U.S. Fiction: Critical Intersections, Methodologies, and Goals
- 1 When Humor Bombs: Masculinity in Crisis in Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
- 2 Weaponized Humor and Homosocial Bonding in Owen Wister’s The Virginian
- 3 Performing Humor in Dorothy Parker’s Fiction: Female Masculinity and Reader Engagement
- 4 Humor, Gender, and Community in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God
- 5 Subversive Humor in an Absurdly Gendered World: Joseph Heller’s Search for Meaning in Catch-22
- 6 “Anything for a Laugh”: Transgressive Humor and Liberated Masculinity in Philip Roth’s Portnoy’s Complaint
- 7 The Efficacy of Humor in Sherman Alexie’s Flight: Violence, Vulnerability, and the Post-9/11 World
- Works Cited
- Index
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Yes, you can access Humor and Masculinity in U.S. Fiction by Joseph L. Coulombe in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Literature & Gender Studies. We have over 1.5 million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.