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Events
Jan. 9 | Call for papers: Identities and Technocultures
A 2-day conference about American culture and technologies that examines how new technologies dominate and define Americaness in the US and abroad. Co-sponsored by the University of Iowa Center for Ethnic Studies and the Arts (CESA) and the Mid-America American Studies Association (MAASA).
Resources: Abstracts of American Studies Dissertations
By University | By Year
Carson, Diane E. "A Feminist Reinterpretation of Screwball Comedies: 1934-1942," Saint Louis University, March 1992. Advisor: Buford Farris (2, 14, 22)
Classic screwball comedies released from 1934 to 1942 enjoy a reputation as popular, fast-paced, romantic films. Through an analysis of the conventions of the screwball genre, through consideration of comedy theory, including the Bakhtinian carnivalesque, and through an application of an oppositional reading, this dissertation reexamines the assessment of these films as comedies of equality and argues for the verbal and physical operations which denigrate and attempt to rob women of their independence. Through role reversals, unconventional behavior, playful antics, and verbal defiance, the women unmask the system which attempts to render them submissive and silent.
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