Overview
A Decade of Dark Humor analyzes ways in which popular and visual culture used humor--in a variety of forms--to confront the attacks of September 11, 2001, and, more specifically, the aftermath. This interdisciplinary volume brings together scholars from four countries to discuss the impact of humor and irony on both media discourse and tangible political reality. Furthermore, it demonstrates that laughter is simultaneously an avenue through which social issues are deferred or obfuscated, a way in which neoliberal or neoconservative rhetoric is challenged, and a means of forming alternative political ideologies. The volume's contributors cover a broad range of media productions, including news parodies (The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Colbert Report, The Onion), TV roundtable shows (Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher), comic strips and cartoons (Aaron McGruder's The Boondocks, Jeff Danzinger's editorial cartoons), television drama (Rescue Me), animated satire (South Park), graphic novels (Art Spiegelman's In the Shadow of No Towers), documentary (Fahrenheit 9/11), and other productions. Along with examining the rhetorical methods and aesthetic techniques of these productions, the essays place each in specific political and journalistic contexts, showing how corporations, news outlets, and political institutions responded to--and sometimes co-opted--these forms of humor.
Full Product Details
Author: Ted Gournelos ,
Viveca Greene ,
Arthur Asa Berger ,
Dr David Holloway (University of Derby)
Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
Imprint: University Press of Mississippi
Dimensions:
Width: 15.20cm
, Height: 1.60cm
, Length: 22.80cm
Weight: 0.410kg
ISBN: 9781617038235
ISBN 10: 1617038237
Pages: 256
Publication Date: 28 February 2013
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Manufactured on demand
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.
Reviews
A Decade of Dark Humor explores the uncertain intersections of trauma, power, and dissent that have defined the United States following 9/11. Impressive for its depth and breadth, it makes a major contribution to our understanding of the complex role irony and satire play during decidedly unfunny times. <p>--Geoffrey Baym, associate professor of media studies at the University of North Carolina Greensboro and author of From Cronkite to Colbert: The Evolution of Broadcast News and co-editor of the collection Not Necessarily the News? News Parody and Political Satire across the Globe
Author Information
Ted Gournelos, Orlando, Florida, is assistant professor of critical media and cultural studies at Rollins College, and the author of Popular Culture and the Future of Politics: Cultural Studies and the Tao of """"South Park."""" |Viveca Greene, Northampton, Massachusetts, is visiting assistant professor of cultural studies at Hampshire College. Her work has appeared in The Nation, In Media Res, and We the Media: A Citizen's Guide to Fighting for Media Democracy.
