- Table View
- List View
Come Go Home with Me
by Sheila Kay AdamsSheila Adams has been performing Appalachian ballads and telling stories for over twenty years. A native of Madison County, North Carolina, she was introduced to the tale-telling tradition by her great-aunt 'Granny,' well-known balladeer Dellie Chandler Norton. This collection of Adams's stories provides a rare portrait of a distinctive mountain community and charts the development of an artist's unique voice. The tales range from stories of heroic, sometimes fierce, mountain settlers to the comic adventures of local drifters and tricksters, from magical childhood encounters to adult rites of passage. We meet Bertha and the snake handlers, local preacher Manassey Fender (who 'looked like a pencil with a burr haircut, in a suit'), and Adams's beloved grandfather Breaddaddy, who taught her about life and death with an enchanting graveyard dance. But perhaps the most powerful character depicted here is 'Granny,' whom Adams calls 'the most exciting person I have ever known and the best teacher I would ever have.' By weaving these remembrances into her stories, Adams both preserves and extends a rich artistic heritage.
Come Now, Let Us Argue It Out: Counter-Conduct and LGBTQ Evangelical Activism (Anthropology of Contemporary North America)
by Jon Burrow-BranineCome Now, Let Us Argue It Out provides a look into a community that challenges common narratives about what it means to be LGBTQ and Christian in the contemporary United States. Based on his participant-observation fieldwork with a faith-based organization called the Reformation Project, Jon Burrow-Branine provides an ethnography of how some LGBTQ and LGBTQ-supportive Christians negotiate identity and difference and work to create change in evangelicalism.Come Now, Let Us Argue It Out tells the story of how this activism can be understood as a community of counter-conduct. Drawing on a concept proposed by the philosopher and historian Michel Foucault, Burrow-Branine documents everyday moments of agency and resistance that have the potential to form new politics, ethics, and ways of being as individuals in this community navigate the exclusionary politics of mainstream evangelical institutions, culture, and theology. More broadly, Burrow-Branine considers the community&’s ongoing conversation about what it means to be LGBTQ and a Christian, grappling with the politics of inclusion and representation in LGBTQ evangelical activism itself.
Come Out and Play: A Global Journey
by John D. Ivanko Maya AjmeraCan you come out and play?If you woke up tomorrow in Egypt with a yen for a good game of tag, you could find it. Then you could hop on your magic carpet and fly to Thailand to play Go Fish with some new friends. Later, you could seesaw until the cows come home in Ireland. Everyone loves to play and the universal appeal of games and goofing around is joyfully evident in COME OUT AND PLAY.Brilliant, full-color photographs portray exuberant, playful kids from over 35 countries engaging in games of all kinds.The It's a Kid's World series is dedicated to the fascinating, imaginative lives of children everywhere. Each compact little book is jammed with bright, kinetic photographs of kids from around the world playing, going to school, caring for their animals, and much more. These action-packed and engaging books are sure to inspire and educate young minds about the world around them while introducing them to kids just like themselves.
Come Out, Come Out, Whoever You Are
by Abigail C. SaguyWhile people used to conceal the fact that they were gay or lesbian to protect themselves from stigma and discrimination, it is now commonplace for people to "come out" and encourage others to do so as well. Come Out, Come Out, Whoever You Are systematically examines how coming out has moved beyond gay and lesbian rights groups and how different groups wrestle with the politics of coming out in their efforts to resist stigma and enact social change. It shows how different experiences and disparate risks of disclosure shape these groups' collective strategies. Through scores of interviews with LGBTQ+ people, undocumented immigrant youth, fat acceptance activists, Mormon fundamentalist polygamists, and sexual harassment lawyers and activists in the era of the #MeToo movement, Come Out, Come Out, Whoever You Are explains why so many different groups gravitate toward the term coming out. By focusing on the personal and political resonance of coming out, it provides a novel way to understand how identity politics work in America today.
Come Rain or Come Shine: Friendships Between Women
by Rachel Naomi Remen Linda Hale Bucklin Mary Keil Rev Lauren Artress"Friendships between women can be a place of refuge from loneliness and indifference, a place where we can know we matter as we are." ~Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D. Author, Kitchen Table WisdomAs this compilation of stories teaches, friendship between women rarely happens automatically—that's what makes it special. Sometimes the circumstances of life—like moving to a new city, or losing your job, or entering your child in school—create an opportunity. But the act of friendship is intentional.Openness is a key ingredient even though recognition of a woman as a friend may require time. Friendship must often go through crisis or trial, some event that forges a bond and solidifies trust. The themes of difficulty and betrayal are woven into these stories, for the authors wisely know that friendship between women must be tested.Sometimes it takes painful and disappointing experiences to begin to value ourselves as friends. Some of us need to learn that what we offer in friendship is rich and worth its weight in gold. We must learn discernment about when to offer it and when it must be withdrawn because the other is not able to appreciate the potential gift of friendship.These short, compact stories are meant to be savored and reflected upon. They can be read slowly over lazy days or used as a morning reflection before running off to work. What they offer is a small but clear view of the female heart through the lens of friendship."There is something easy, something flowing, something sacred that can go on between women. Linda Bucklin and Mary Keil have modeled this in their work together. They are close friends, and out of that friendship comes this book." ~ The Reverend Dr. Lauren ArtressOTHER TITLES by Linda Hale BucklinBeyond His Control - Memoir of a Disobedient DaughterThe Love of AngelsABOUT THE AUTHORS:A fourth-generation San Franciscan, Linda Hale Bucklin now lives in Mill Valley CA. She recently lost her beloved husband of forty years, yet she feels so blessed to be surrounded by her three grown sons, two daughters-in-law and four grandchildren.She has worked in public relations and as a freelance writer. Her articles have appeared in HOUSE AND GARDEN, JOURNAL OF COMMERCE and NOB HILL GAZETTE.In 1999, together with Mary Keil, she co-authored COME RAIN OR COME SHINE, published by Adams Media. In 2008, her second book BEYOND HIS CONTROL, MEMOIR OF A DISOBEDIENT DAUGHTER, was published. The book went on to become a New York Times Best Seller in paperback and eBook editions. The New York Post Page Six article entitled “Tennis Queen Rips Stepmom” describes Linda’s book “as a jolting new memoir.” In it, she writes of growing up in a privileged San Francisco family and chronicles her struggle to understand its dynamics, stand up to her domineering father and make sense of her beloved mother’s sudden death and father’s (Prentis Cobb Hale) subsequent marriage to Denise Minnelli.Her third book THE LOVE OF ANGELS came out in 2016. A collection of stories, including the author’s own, the book chronicles encounters with angels, spiritual beings, animals and living people who show up to remind us of the power of love. Linda loves books and stories of all kinds and has always been interested in her own and others’ spiritual growth.For many years, she served as a trustee for San Francisco’s magnificent Grace Cathedral and for The Magic Theatre, whose mission was to discover and present new American playwrights, starting with Sam Shepard.Her family and friends, and especially her cherished friendship with Mary, are of primary importance to her, but she finds time to pursue other interests as well. For some years a nationally ranked tennis player, she became #1 in the U.S. in 60 mixed doubles in 2006 with her longtime partner and close friend Charlie Hoeveler. Holding six national titles, she continues to compete in tournaments across the country.Linda’s other passions include duplicate bridge, duck hunting, camping in Montana, fly-fishing on the North Fork of the Black Foot River, and at night, gazing up at the immense, star-studded, black
Come Shouting to Zion: African American Protestantism in the American South and British Caribbean to 1830
by Betty Wood Sylvia R. FreyThe conversion of African-born slaves and their descendants to Protestant Christianity marked one of the most important social and intellectual transformations in American history. Come Shouting to Zion is the first comprehensive exploration of the processes by which this remarkable transition occurred. Using an extraordinary array of archival sources, Sylvia Frey and Betty Wood chart the course of religious conversion from the transference of traditional African religions to the New World through the growth of Protestant Christianity in the American South and British Caribbean up to 1830. Come Shouting to Zion depicts religious transformation as a complex reciprocal movement involving black and white Christians. It highlights the role of African American preachers in the conversion process and demonstrates the extent to which African American women were responsible for developing distinctive ritual patterns of worship and divergent moral values within the black spiritual community. Finally, the book sheds light on the ways in which, by serving as a channel for the assimilation of Western culture into the slave quarters, Protestant Christianity helped transform Africans into African Americans.
Come Together: Years of Gay Liberation
by Aubrey WalterOn the origins of European queer politicsCome Together tells the incredible story of the emerging radicalism of the Gay Liberation Front, providing a vivid history of the movement, as well as the new ideas and practices it gave rise to across the United Kingdom. Before marriage equality or military service, Come Together reminds us of paths forged but not taken by queer politics in its earliest stages.
Come What May: Life-Changing Lessons for Coping with Crisis
by Lucy EasthopeAN UPLIFTING GUIDE TO NAVIGATING HARD TIMES, PERFECT FOR FANS OF DR JULIE SMITH AND JULIA SAMUELS 'An unlikely superhero' Sunday Times'An amazing woman' James O'Brien'Easthope is that rare thing, a genuine philosopher thinking through what she is doing in the mitigation of human suffering' New StatesmanWe all know that at some point in life, we will experience pain, uncertainty and loss. Widowhood, redundancy, a life-changing diagnosis, pregnancy loss, or a global pandemic. So how can we weather the storms, and cope with whatever comes next? No one can answer this better than Lucy Easthope, an emergency planner whose job is to support survivors of major disasters. She has been there after countless earthquakes, fires and floods. Time and again she has watched how people rebuild: the work, the pitfalls and the fragile joy. In Come What May, she distils for us what she has learned about how to carry on during and after terrible times. Through poignant stories and hard-won wisdom, she offers a roadmap for resilience in the face of adversity. She explains what shape the recovery journey might take, how to triage your life in an emergency, how to plan for 'the slump' (also known as the lasagne phase), how to take stock of what has happened to you, how to watch out for 'learned helplessness', and what good (and bad) help looks like. This is a book for all of us existing in 'the after' who want not just to survive, but to live and unleash strengths we never knew we had.
Come What May: Life-Changing Lessons for Coping with Crisis
by Lucy EasthopeAN UPLIFTING GUIDE TO NAVIGATING HARD TIMES, PERFECT FOR FANS OF DR JULIE SMITH AND JULIA SAMUELS 'An unlikely superhero' Sunday Times'An amazing woman' James O'Brien'Easthope is that rare thing, a genuine philosopher thinking through what she is doing in the mitigation of human suffering' New StatesmanWe all know that at some point in life, we will experience pain, uncertainty and loss. Widowhood, redundancy, a life-changing diagnosis, pregnancy loss, or a global pandemic. So how can we weather the storms, and cope with whatever comes next? No one can answer this better than Lucy Easthope, an emergency planner whose job is to support survivors of major disasters. She has been there after countless earthquakes, fires and floods. Time and again she has watched how people rebuild: the work, the pitfalls and the fragile joy. In Come What May, she distils for us what she has learned about how to carry on during and after terrible times. Through poignant stories and hard-won wisdom, she offers a roadmap for resilience in the face of adversity. She explains what shape the recovery journey might take, how to triage your life in an emergency, how to plan for 'the slump' (also known as the lasagne phase), how to take stock of what has happened to you, how to watch out for 'learned helplessness', and what good (and bad) help looks like. This is a book for all of us existing in 'the after' who want not just to survive, but to live and unleash strengths we never knew we had.
Come What May: Life-Changing Lessons for Coping with Crisis
by Lucy EasthopeAN UPLIFTING GUIDE TO NAVIGATING HARD TIMES, PERFECT FOR FANS OF DR JULIE SMITH AND JULIA SAMUELS 'An unlikely superhero' Sunday Times'An amazing woman' James O'Brien'Easthope is that rare thing, a genuine philosopher thinking through what she is doing in the mitigation of human suffering' New StatesmanWe all know that at some point in life, we will experience pain, uncertainty and loss. Widowhood, redundancy, a life-changing diagnosis, pregnancy loss, or a global pandemic. So how can we weather the storms, and cope with whatever comes next? No one can answer this better than Lucy Easthope, an emergency planner whose job is to support survivors of major disasters. She has been there after countless earthquakes, fires and floods. Time and again she has watched how people rebuild: the work, the pitfalls and the fragile joy. In Come What May, she distils for us what she has learned about how to carry on during and after terrible times. Through poignant stories and hard-won wisdom, she offers a roadmap for resilience in the face of adversity. She explains what shape the recovery journey might take, how to triage your life in an emergency, how to plan for 'the slump' (also known as the lasagne phase), how to take stock of what has happened to you, how to watch out for 'learned helplessness', and what good (and bad) help looks like. This is a book for all of us existing in 'the after' who want not just to survive, but to live and unleash strengths we never knew we had.
Come and Be Shocked: Baltimore beyond John Waters and The Wire
by Mary RizzoBaltimore seen through the eyes of John Waters, Anne Tyler, Charles S. Dutton, Barry Levinson, David Simon—and also ordinary citizens.The city of Baltimore features prominently in an extraordinary number of films, television shows, novels, plays, poems, and songs. Whether it's the small-town eccentricity of Charm City (think duckpin bowling and marble-stooped row houses) or the gang violence of "Bodymore, Murdaland," Baltimore has figured prominently in popular culture about cities since the 1950s. In Come and Be Shocked, Mary Rizzo examines the cultural history and racial politics of these contrasting images of the city. From the 1950s, a period of urban crisis and urban renewal, to the early twenty-first century, Rizzo looks at how artists created powerful images of Baltimore. How, Rizzo asks, do the imaginary cities created by artists affect the real cities that we live in? How does public policy (intentionally or not) shape the kinds of cultural representations that artists create? And why has the relationship between artists and Baltimore city officials been so fraught, resulting in public battles over film permits and censorship?To answer these questions, Rizzo explores the rise of tourism, urban branding, and citizen activism. She considers artists working in the margins, from the East Baltimore poets writing in Chicory, a community magazine funded by the Office of Economic Opportunity, to a young John Waters, who shot his early low-budget movies on the streets, guerrilla-style. She also investigates more mainstream art, from the teen dance sensation The Buddy Deane Show to the comedy-drama Roc to the crime show The Wire, from Anne Tyler's award-winning book The Accidental Tourist to Barry Levinson's movie classic Diner.
Come as You Are: The Surprising New Science that Will Transform Your Sex Life (Come As You Are Ser.)
by Emily NagoskiAn essential exploration of why and how women's sexuality works--based on groundbreaking research and brain science--that will radically transform your sex life into one filled with confidence and joy.Researchers have spent the last decade trying to develop a "pink pill" for women to function like Viagra does for men. So where is it? Well, for reasons this book makes crystal clear, that pill will never exist--but as a result of the research that's gone into it, scientists in the last few years have learned more about how women's sexuality works than we ever thought possible, and Come as You Are explains it all. The first lesson in this essential, transformative book by Dr. Emily Nagoski is that every woman has her own unique sexuality, like a fingerprint, and that women vary more than men in our anatomy, our sexual response mechanisms, and the way our bodies respond to the sexual world. So we never need to judge ourselves based on others' experiences. Because women vary, and that's normal. Second lesson: sex happens in a context. And all the complications of everyday life influence the context surrounding a woman's arousal, desire, and orgasm. Cutting-edge research across multiple disciplines tells us that the most important factor for women in creating and sustaining a fulfilling sex life, is not what you do in bed or how you do it, but how you feel about it. Which means that stress, mood, trust, and body image are not peripheral factors in a woman's sexual wellbeing; they are central to it. Once you understand these factors, and how to influence them, you can create for yourself better sex and more profound pleasure than you ever thought possible. And Emily Nagoski can prove it.
Come home Charley Patton
by Ralph LemonCome home Charley Patton is a moving and an imaginative memoir documenting the Civil Rights Era and contemporary southern culture. Intricately layered and deeply arresting, Ralph Lemon's research on the African American experience intertwines personal anecdotes and family remembrances with diaristic accounts of the making of a dance, as Lemon journeys the mythic roads of migration—visiting the sites of lynchings, following the paths of Civil Rights marches, and meeting the descendants of early blues musicians. Come home Charley Patton is a rich, transcendent text, and a historically-charged meditation on memory in America. It is a formidable finale for the Geography trilogy (including Geography and Tree), three books connected thematically by racial identity and the related dance projects choreographed by Lemon. Generously illustrated with family photos, original art, and photos of the performance, the book will take its place in the canon of great African American writing.
Come on Down?: Popular Media Culture in Post-War Britain
by Stephen Wagg Dominic StrinatiCome on Down represents an introduction to popular media culture in Britain since 1945. It discusses the ways in which popular culture can be studied, understood and appreciated, and covers its key analytical issues and some of its most important forms and processes. The contributors analyse some of popular culture's leading and most representative expressions such as TV soaps, quizzes and game shows, TV for children, media treatment of the monarchy, Pop Music, Comedy, Advertising, Consumerism and Americanization. The diversity of both subject matter and argument is the most distinctive feature of the collection, making it a much-needed and extremely accessible, interdisciplinary introduction to the study of popular media culture. The contributors, many of them leading figures in their respective areas of study, represent a number of different approaches which themselves reflect the diversity and promise of contemporary theoretical debates. Their studies encompass issues such as the economics of popular culture, its textual complexity and its interpretations by audiences, as well as concepts such as ideology, material culture and postmodernism.
Come risparmiare tempo e non morire provandoci
by Claudio Pardo MolinaQuesto saggio si basa sul dialogo "De previtate vitae" scritto da Lucio Anneo Seneca nel 55 DC. Scrissi questo saggio adattando l'opera di Seneca per l'incredibile contemporaneitá di un dialogo scritto più di 2000 anni fa. Credo che le raccomandazioni che ci da Seneca, adattate ad esempi attuali, possano far si che molte persone prendano decisioni migliori riguardo il bene più prezioso che possiamo avere, mi riferisco al nostro tempo. Mi sta a cuore che si possa scoprire l'immensa sapienza che arriva dal passato e che potrebbe evitarci molte sofferenze legate a un cattivo uso del tempo. Leggere è ascoltare. Seconde me leggere questo tipo di documenti equivale ad ascoltare l'esperienza di un essere umano con molto buon senso che voleva orientarci e che non abbiamo avuto la fortuna di conoscerlo di persona.
Come to the Edge: A Memoir
by Christina HaagThe Love Story of JFK Jr. and Christina Haag * New York Times bestseller When Christina Haag was growing up on Manhattan's Upper East Side, John F. Kennedy, Jr., was just one of the boys in her circle of prep school friends, a skinny kid who lived with his mother and sister on Fifth Avenue and who happened to have a Secret Service detail following him discreetly at all times. A decade later, after they had both graduated from Brown University, Christina and John were cast in an off-Broadway play together. It was then that John confessed his long-standing crush on her, and they embarked on a five-year love affair. Glamorous and often in the public eye, but also passionate and deeply intimate, their relationship was transformative for both of them. Exquisitely written, Come to the Edge is an elegy to first love, a lost New York, and a young man with an enormous capacity for tenderness, and an adventurous spirit, who led his life with surprising and abundant grace.m to live life to its fullest. A haunting book, Come to the Edge is a lasting evocation of a time and a place--of the indelible sting of the loss of young love, and of the people who shape you and remain with you, whether in person or in spirit. It is about being young and full of hope, with all the potential of your life as yet unfulfilled, and of coming of age at a moment in New York's history when the city at once held danger, magic, and endless possibilities for self-discovery. Rarely has a love story been told so beautifully.From the Hardcover edition.
Come, Let Me Guide You
by Susan KriegerCome, Let Me Guide You explores the intimate communication between author Susan Krieger and her guide dog Teela over the ten-year span of their working life together. <P>This is a book about being led by a dog to new places in the world and new places in the self, a book about facing life's challenges outwardly and within, and about reading those clues--those deeply felt signals--that can help guide the way. It is also, more broadly, about the importance of intimate connection in human-animal relationships, academic work, and personal life. In her previous book, Traveling Blind: Adventures in Vision with a Guide Dog by My Side, Krieger focused on her first two years with Teela, her lively Golden Retriever-Yellow Labrador. <P>Come, Let Me Guide You continues the narrative, beginning at the moment the author must confront Teela's retirement and then reflecting on the entire span of their relationship. These emotionally moving stories offer the reader personal entrée into a life of increasing pleasure and insight as Krieger describes how her relationship with her guide dog has had far-reaching effects, not only on her abilities to navigate the world while blind, but also on her writing and teaching, her ability to face loss, and her sense of self. Come, Let Me Guide You is an invaluable contribution to the literature on human-animal communication and on the guide-dog-human experience, as well as to disability and feminist ethnographic studies. It shows how a relationship with a guide dog is unique among bonds, for it rests upon highly regulated connections yet touches deep emotional chords. <P>For Krieger, those chords have resulted in these memorable stories, often humorous and playful, always instructive, and generative of broader insight.
Comediantes y mártires: Ensayo contra los mitos
by Juan José SebreliTras deslumbrar a los lectores y la crítica con su análisis de la filosofía del siglo XX en El olvido de la razón, Juan José Sebreli dedica su nueva y brillante obra a la figura del héroe en la sociedad contemporánea, a partir de cuatro mitos universales de origen argentino: Evita, Gardel, el Che Guevara y Maradona. ¿Cómo se construye el mito? ¿Qué similitudes guarda con la vida real de los personajes? Con estas dos preguntas como guía, Sebreli pasa revista a las circunstancias vitales y las características personales de estos cuatro iconos y desentierra un elenco de contradicciones rabiosas y paradojas flagrantes: la pasión por la alta costura de la «abanderada de los humildes»; el desganado oportunismo de Gardel; el amor a la violencia del Che Guevara y los devaneos y alardes de Diego Maradona, siempre entre el escándalo y el fraude. Sebreli observa con precisión microscópica las conductas y logra un ensayo maduro y reflexivo para todos los lectores lúcidos, que no podrán sino coincidir con la cita de Bertolt que encabeza el libro: «Pobres los pueblos que necesitan héroes». Libro galardonado con el I Premio de Ensayo Debate-Casa de América.
Comedy Book: How Comedy Conquered Culture—and the Magic That Makes It Work
by Jesse David FoxOne of NPR’s Best Books of 2023. A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice. Named a Most Anticipated Book by Vulture, Elle, Chicago Tribune, The Millions, and Lit Hub.“Comedy Book changes the way we talk about an art form that is more diverse and exciting than ever before.” —Seth Meyers “Energetic and wise . . . Comedy Book is not the definitive history of the past three-plus decades. It’s Fox’s history, and better for it.” —The New York Times Book ReviewFrom a beloved comedy critic, a wisecracking, heartfelt, and overdue chronicle of comedy’s boom—and its magic.In Comedy Book, Jesse David Fox—the country’s most definitive voice in comedy criticism and someone who, in his own words, enjoys comedy “maybe more than anyone on this planet”—tackles everything you need to know about comedy, an art form that has been under-considered throughout its history, even as it has ascended as a cultural force. Weaving together history and analysis, Fox unravels the genre’s political legacy through an ode to Jon Stewart, interrogates the divide between highbrow and lowbrow via Adam Sandler, and unpacks how marginalized comics create spaces for their communities. Along the way, Fox covers topics ranging from comedy in the age of political correctness and Will Smith’s slap, to the right wing’s relationship with comedy, to comedy’s ability to heal in the wake of tragedy. With memorable cameos from Jerry Seinfeld, Dave Chappelle, John Mulaney, Ali Wong, Kate Berlant, and countless others, Comedy Book is an eye-opening education in how to engage with our most omnipresent art form, a riotous history of American pop culture, and a love letter to laughter.
Comedy Films 1894–1954 (Routledge Library Editions: Comedy)
by John MontgomeryOriginally published in 1954, this was the first factual history of comedy films and the men and women who had since 1894 kept us laughing in the cinema. It traces the beginning of comic motion pictures and the pioneer work of Paul, Gaumont, Hepworth, Pathe and Zecca. Then comes the picture palace craze and the success of the early Italian and French comedies and trick films. The work of Al Christie and Mack Sennett in America, and the rise of American films, is fully described, as knockabout gives way to slapstick, and salaries and box-office receipts soar. Now come Chaplin, Harold Lloyd and all the other bright figures of the Roaring Twenties, with favourites like Buster Keaton and Will Rogers to the fore. The development of sound and its effect on the comedians is explained, and the story comes up to date through the thirties and forties to 1954. Some of the hundreds of names to whom tribute is paid include Mabel Normand, Larry Semon, Roscoe Arbuckle, Monty Banks, Max Linder, Harry Langdon, Will Hay, the Marx Brothers, Bob Hope, Fernandel and Alec Guinness. These are only a few of the many whose careers are traced. The book is illustrated by a number of carefully selected photographs, many of which are unique. This edition, first published in 1968 has been revised but the period it covers remains the same, 1894-1954, sixty years of film humour.
Comedy and Distinction: The Cultural Currency of a ‘Good’ Sense of Humour (CRESC)
by Sam FriedmanThis book was shortlisted for the 2015 BSA Philip Abrams Memorial Prize. Comedy is currently enjoying unprecedented growth within the British culture industries. Defying the recent economic downturn, it has exploded into a booming billion-pound industry both on TV and on the live circuit. Despite this, academia has either ignored comedy or focused solely on analysing comedians or comic texts. This scholarship tends to assume that through analysing an artist’s intentions or techniques, we can somehow understand what is and what isn’t funny. But this poses a fundamental question – funny to whom? How can we definitively discern how audiences react to comedy? Comedy and Distinction shifts the focus to provide the first ever empirical examination of British comedy taste. Drawing on a large-scale survey and in-depth interviews carried out at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the book explores what types of comedy people like (and dislike), what their preferences reveal about their sense of humour, how comedy taste lubricates everyday interaction, and how issues of social class, gender, ethnicity and geographical location interact with patterns of comic taste. Friedman asks: Are some types of comedy valued higher than others in British society? Does more ‘legitimate’ comedy taste act as a tangible resource in social life – a form of cultural capital? What role does humour play in policing class boundaries in contemporary Britain? This book will be of interest to students and scholars of sociology, social class, social theory, cultural studies and comedy studies.
Comedy and Satire in Zimbabwe: The Poetics and Politics of Resistance After Mugabe (Palgrave Studies in Comedy)
by Rodwell MakombeThe book is about comedy, the nation, and resistance in Zimbabwe, following the fall of Robert Mugabe in 2017. It explores how satiric comedies and comic texts in post-Mugabe Zimbabwe contest hegemonic narratives of the nation and authorise alternative narratives from the margins. Drawing on postcolonial theories of the nation, it analyses subversive comedies and social media texts that contest official political narratives in Zimbabwe, including the comedies of four Zimbabwean comedians—Kapfupi and Marabha, Doc Vikela, and Sabhuku Vharazipi—as well as social media texts on President Mnangagwa&’s Facebook Page and cartoons published by the Zimbabwean newspaper ZimDaily. Primarily found via social media platforms (Facebook and Youtube), these texts centre alternative views and narratives of ordinary citizens, contesting established truths and providing a counter-narration to official hegemonic discourses of the nation. Where existing scholarship on post-Mugabe politics in Zimbabwe focuses on issues such as the coup, militarisation, and discourses of "newness", little attention has been paid to the forms of resistance used in everyday discourse by Zimbabweans, and particularly via satire and comedy. These comic texts, shared by comedians and normal citizens on social media, can provide a useful alternative perspective to make sense of the politics and political performances that characterize the new political dispensation after Mugabe.
Comedy and Social Science: Towards a Methodology of Funny (Routledge Advances in Sociology #153)
by Cate WatsonWhile there have been many sociological and psychological studies of humor, few can claim to be funny. Humor may be regarded as a legitimate topic for social scientists, but in general, they present their research rather seriously. In academia, humor tends to be trivialized and dismissed. This is more than just a missed opportunity for otherwise fun-loving academics. In literature, it is readily accepted that comedy is integral to the human condition. To ignore humor is to reject a potentially insightful methodological approach, as the humorous worldview presents unique opportunities for investigating the social. This book constitutes a unique resource, presenting chapters on irony, satire and parody as tools for analysis and means of representation, as well as considering humor in the conduct of research, and offering guidance on getting published. Through presenting examples from across the social sciences, the book seeks to persuade and inspire rather than to prescribe an approach – a closure which would (ironically) be inimical to the multiplicity and ambiguity which characterizes humorous research and lends it its distinctive edge.
Comedy and the Politics of Representation: Mocking the Weak (Palgrave Studies in Comedy)
by Helen Davies Sarah IlottThis edited collection explores the representations of identity in comedy and interrogates the ways in which “humorous” constructions of gender, sexuality, ethnicity, religion, class and disability raise serious issues about privilege, agency and oppression in popular culture. Should there be limits to free speech when humour is aimed at marginalised social groups? What are the limits of free speech when comedy pokes fun at those who hold social power? Can taboo joking be used towards politically progressive ends? Can stereotypes be mocked through their re-invocation? Comedy and the Politics of Representation: Mocking the Weak breaks new theoretical ground by demonstrating how the way people are represented mediates the triadic relationship set up in comedy between teller, audience and butt of the joke. By bringing together a selection of essays from international scholars, this study unpacks and examines the dynamic role that humour plays in making and remaking identity and power relations in culture and society.
Comedy, Cameos, and Campaign Communication: Leveraging Entertainment Media to Win Elections and Advance Policy (Routledge Studies in Media, Communication, and Politics)
by Jason TurcotteThis book provides a thorough foundation for understanding the shift from political campaigning via legacy news media to campaigning through entertainment media. Public discourse that would once transpire on the newsprint of opinion pages or behind a news anchor’s desk and teleprompter is now happening through talk shows and sitcoms, celebrity partnerships and influencer accounts, memes and streams, video games, branded merchandise, and social media. Here, Turcotte explores how media consumption habits have reshaped contemporary campaign norms and shifted strategies for seeking public office and advancing policy goals. He shows how candidates are incorporating entertainment media in their strategic campaigns, moving beyond satirical programs to demonstrate a multi-pronged approach to campaign communication in the entertainment environment. With a compelling introduction to these campaign shifts and an examination of tangible applications, this text is suitable for scholars as well as students in both political science and mass communication courses, particularly courses in political communication and strategic communication.