Humor, Entertainment, and Popular Culture during World War I - Hardcover

Tholas-Disset, Clémentine; Ritzenhoff, Karen A.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1137449098 ISBN 13: 9781137449092

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015

Synopsis

Humor and entertainment were vital to the war effort during World War I. While entertainment provided relief to soldiers in the trenches, it also built up support for the war effort on the home front. This book looks at transnational war culture by examining seemingly light-hearted discourses on the Great War.

About this title

About the Author:

Giaime Alonge, University of Turin, Italy Laurent Bihl, Panthéon Sorbonne University, France Anne Cirella-Urrutia, Huston-Tillotson University, USA Claire Conilleau, Université de Cergy-Pontoise, France Robert Crawford, University of Technology, Australia Renee Dickason, University of Brittany, France Koenraad Du Pont, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven/ Brussels Center for Journalism Studies, Belgium Jakub Kazecki, Bates College, USA Jenna L. Kubly, Tufts University, USA Adrian T. Lewis, Leiden University, The Netherlands Felicia Hardison Londré, University of Missouri-Kansas City, USA Fabrice Lyczba, University Paris-Dauphine, France John Mullen, Université Paris Est Créteil, France Lawrence Napper, King's College, UK Francesco Pitassio, University of Udine, Italy Karen Randell, Bedfordshire University, UK Amy Wells, Université de Caen Basse-Normandie, France.

Review:

“This is a thoroughly enjoyable book offering insight and interest for cultural historians of the Great War the world over. Refreshingly, it deals with a number of topics otherwise overlooked in relation to the conflict, and offers contributions from a mixture of new and established academics.” (Pip Gregory, Reviews in History, history.ac.uk, April, 2016)

"Tholas-Disset and Ritzenhoff have produced a volume that revivifies the battle scenes of World War I by filling the trenches with an unexpected sound: laughter. Enjoy this book for its scholarship of popular culture during the Great War, but delight in the amusing and unexpected humor that comes from films, anecdotes, poetry and songs in spite of such obvious sorrow." - Michael Cullinane, Senior Lecturer, US History, Northumbria University, UK

"Gallows humor, patriotic entertainment, and raucous consumerist fun: this collection looks at the Great War through a different lens. It shows what we can learn about the past by taking comedy seriously." - Joanna Bourke, Professor, History, Birkbeck College, University of London, UK

"Editors Tholas-Disset andRitzenhoff, together with their international group of scholars, have beautifully risen to the challenge of 'histoire croisée/entangled history' as applied to the First World War context. By means of a purposely-cultural approach, this book examines the apparent war/laughter antinomy and humor as an antidote to trauma, and in so doing offers a remarkable contribution to the study of the Great War that will significantly complement the work of historians. Put more simply, it is a good read and a centennial must." - Serge Ricard, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, France and editor of A Companion to Theodore Roosevelt

"Humor, Entertainment and Popular Culture during World War I investigates the complex relationship between the entertainment industry, artists and the Great War, and how the experience of warfare or just being at war was often expressed through various forms of humor. The sheer scope is impressive in terms of both the nations and media covered, and each chapter presents an original and entertaining point of entry!" - David Roche, Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès, France and author of Making and Remaking Horror in the 1970s and 2000s, and co-editor of Intimacy in Cinema

About this edition

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1137449098
• ISBN 13: 9781137449092
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 304