AMERICANA E-journal of American Studies in Hungary

Introduction

Zsófia Anna Tóth — 2023-12-15

Introduction

In the Service of Indoctrination: Humor in Antebellum American Genre Painting

Irén Annus — 2023-12-15

The construction of national culture and identity, particularly for a newly established nation, is a complex and multifaceted process, one that by definition requires a scrupulous, circumspect, and thoughtful disposition. The historical weight and scale of such an undertaking demand gravity and seriousness that signify a grand enterprise. This was the cultural context within which genre painting found its way to the US in the early nineteenth century. Genre painting (also referred to as morality painting) in Europe often employed humor to provide social criticism, but in the US it was seen as a quintessential style to portray the American nation as unified and democratic through renderings of the daily life of common people – once portrait and history painting had provided the metanarratives and the pantheon of national heroes upon which this new phase of cultural production evolved. The study investigates the key aspects of the ambivalence between genre painting in the old and the new worlds and the ways in which humor was employed in subtle ways in American genre paintings to illuminate the social norms and expectations associated with the up-and-coming middle-class values cemented at the heart of what emerged as the “proper” American nation.

Brother Jonathan Runs for President: Spoof Campaigns, the Janus Laugh, and the Rise of Donald Trump

Judith Yaross Lee — 2023-12-15

Since the 1830s, mock-campaigns for President of the United States have featured comic candidates descended from Brother Jonathan, the eighteenth-century folk figure who characterizes the ordinary American as the quintessential democratic citizen. Jonathan’s rustic innocence and virtue distinguish him from the corrupt politicians who arise from the elite, and thereby contribute to the two-faced joke—the Janus Laugh—underlying the past century’s many spoof campaigns: elitism in the form of populism. Via the reverse logic of irony and humor, nominations for unlikely spoof candidates endorse the status quo of seasoned politicians by implying that the alternative to elite leadership is a joke. Donald Trump’s 2016 candidacy demonstrates that the ideology of spoof campaigns also animates authentic runs for American political office.

Life and Humor According to Seinfeld: Sociocultural Aspects of a Classic Sitcom in the US and Beyond

András Lénárt — 2023-12-15

In the late 1980s, Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David came up with the idea for a situation comedy that became a true classic of American television and is still a reference point for comedies today. The 80s and 90s brought the golden age of sitcoms, with Seinfeld becoming one of the most important TV shows in the United States. The series became an undeniable landmark of American popular culture, considered by many to be one of the greatest and most influential sitcoms of all time. It also became the best representative of observational comedy, with the concerns, reactions, minor existential crises and life situations of the four main characters familiar to the large public. At the same time, the negative remarks were also present depicting this show that is basically about nothing and one that tries to captivate the audience with excessive simplicity. In the United States, the show achieved cult status, which it still retains, but it has been less popular in other countries due to some of the everyday problems presented in the episodes not necessarily unique to US society and culture. The aim of my article is to show the sociocultural aspects that turned Seinfeld into a milestone and also to describe what characterizes the Seinfeldian version of observational humor by focusing on the reasons for the sometimes extreme reactions (both positive and negative) to this type of humor in the US and beyond.

Negotiating the Voices of ‘Otherness’ in South Africa and the USA: the Function of Humor in Trevor Noah’s Stand-up Comedy on Race

Lili Zách — 2023-12-15

Comparing Trevor Noah’s stand-up comedy performed in front of South African and US audiences, this paper explores the significance of humor when addressing race relations in the USA and with regard to the system of institutionalized racial segregation known as Apartheid in pre-1994 South Africa. It traces the applicability of John Morreall’s model (2009) to Trevor Noah’s stand-up comedy in relation to the critical, cohesive, and coping functions of humor, originally applied within the context of the Holocaust. While Källstig & Death (2020) discussed the recurring themes of race, disease, and poverty in Noah’s comedy from a postcolonial perspective, this paper proposes to theorize his stand-up comedy by addressing the significance of (American and South African) audiences in the comedian’s assessment of “Otherness” and racial relations. It was Amy Carell (1993) who highlighted the fact that humor did not exist in a vacuum; her Audience-Based Theory of Verbal Humor will be used as the theoretical framework of this paper. Ultimately, by blurring the contrast between tragedy and comedy, the paper applies Morreall’s “positive ethics of humor” and investigates the functions of humor in response to racism in both South Africa and the USA while at the same time assessing the role of audiences to Noah’s performances. In order to emphasize the interconnectedness of humor, psychology, history and politics, the paper traces the uses of laughter in the process of coping with traumatic events that have been associated with politicized racial segregation, hatred, and socio-economic discrimination.

Humor in Contemporary Native American Art

Hend Ayari — 2023-12-15

Humor is a central feature of Native American culture as it manifests itself in various facets of tribal life. In the past, humor ensured the survival of tribes as it facilitated communication and built a stronger sense of kinship. The “Stoic Indians” stereotype gradually took over hence the supposedly Stoic Indians have been denied the right to access to today’s American “laughscape” (Rebecca Krefting). Traditionally, humor has been closely aligned with literature (satirical writings) or performance (comedic plays) but rarely with visual arts. Thus, the contribution of contemporary Native American visual artists is twofold: (1) to introduce and highlight the humor in visual arts and (2) to manipulate this strategy as a tool for cultural transmission and identity reclamation. In so doing, Native American artists, like any other ethnic and racial group, recognize the power of humor as a tool that brings people, regardless of their ethnic background, “to a militant edge” to use Vine Deloria’s term. Humor expressed through these artists’ creations serves as a repository for tackling issues related to the Native American experience and the whole country. In terms of methodology, an analysis of a selection of contemporary artwork by Native American artists such as Jim Denomie, Wendy Red Star and Tom Farris that combine features of satire, parody, and puns yields the conclusion that humor in visual art is commensurate with examples from the field of literature and performance. The other outcome of this examination is a humorous artistic attempt at breaking down the negative cultural stereotypes and participating in the re-invention of a resilient American Indian identity. Both aspects of this paper are rooted in ethnic humor studies.

Identity and Humor in Never Have I Ever

Ankita Dolai — 2023-12-15

Reading the TV series Never Have I Ever (2020-2023) through the lens of dramedy highlights not only the experiences of its tragicomic protagonist, the 15-year-old Indian American protagonist Devi Vishwakumar, but also the humorous portrayal of her ambivalent relationship to her mother Nalini in the context of Indian American diaspora formations. Devi is portrayed as extremely intelligent, yet also as insecure, rebellious and awkward, reflecting a multi-faceted and flawed brown teenage character beyond the common caricature of an Indian immigrant background. The show reveals that her inclination towards Western and American lifestyle does not so much emerge because she rejects her cultural background, but because she is confused about how to navigate her multi-layered identity and carve out her own sense of self. Humor in the show exposes the silliness of perceived stereotypes associated with Indian culture, while at the same time questioning and resisting them through its complex characters. Although, her mother, Nalini represents the conservative and restrictive Indian part of Devi’s identity and forces her to embrace it, Nalini also follows her own desires and rejects certain prescribed norms that come with her role as an Indian mother. This paper analyses how the show’s complex characters and mother-daughter relationship subverts generational stereotypes surrounding diasporic identities and Indian motherhood through the genre elements of dramedy and high school melodrama.

Sisu(datu), the Funny Female Dragon of the Disney Universe

Zsófia Anna Tóth — 2023-12-15

In the Disney movie Raya and the Last Dragon (2021, hence mentioned as Raya) Sisu(datu) or simply just Sisu, the dragon, is a unique character, as she represents a merger of both the West and the East, constituting a bridge and playing a major role in cultural diplomacy while she is one of the first female Disney characters actively producing humor. The paper reveals what critics have so far thought about humor in Disney in general by highlighting that even if Sisu is not the first positive dragon character in a Western animated film, she stands out as a complex figure. She is sacred with her dragon abilities and magical status while also being sacrilegious with her use of humor and occasional clumsiness at the same time. At the height of the tension between the USA and China (due to the COVID-19 pandemic), this character appeared as a regenerative gesture of cultural diplomacy and a positive point of reference for Asian Americans especially, since Sisu was voiced by Awkwafina. In sum, the paper examines the use of humor in this animated film from various points of view taking account of Asian American identities, Asian and American cultural differences as well as the questions of women’s humor and that of how the Disney Company is currently rethinking its humor strategies.

Review of Dans les rouages de la culture populaire américaine

Judit Karácsonyi — 2023-12-15

Dans les rouages de la culture populaire américaine
Claire Palmiste, Stéphane Partel and Steve Gadet
Paris: L’Harmattan, 2022
184 pages
ISBN 978-2-14-020877-5

Review of The Disney Princess Phenomenon

Zsófia Anna Tóth — 2023-12-15

The Disney Princess Phenomenon. A Feminist Analysis
Robyn Muir
Bristol: Bristol University Press, 2023.
218 p.
ISBN 978-1-5292-2209-8 hardcover, ISBN 978-1-5292-2210-4 ePub, ISBN 978-1-5292-2211-1 ePdf

Book Review of Masculinity in Transition written by K. Allison Hammer

Hana Lina Dalel Berraf — 2023-12-15

Masculinity in Transition
K. Allison Hammer
20203
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press
259 pages
ISBN 978-1-5179-1435-6 (paperback)

Review of Pioneer Hungarian Women in Science and Education

Pál Hegyi — 2023-12-15

Pioneer Hungarian Women in Science and Education
Réka M. Cristian and Anna Kérchy (Eds.)
Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 2022.
151 pp.
ISBN: 978 963 454 771 6

Review of Pioneer Hungarian Women in Science and Education II

Petra Dán — 2023-12-15

Pioneer Hungarian Women in Science and Education II
Eds. Réka M. Cristian and Anna Kérchy
2023
Budapest, Hungary: Akadémiai Kiadó
244 pp.
ISBN: 978 963 454 928 4