San Antonio College Library

This volume contains 16 reprinted and seven original essays. James Cox considers the vigor of American humor as an outgrowth of the nation's optimistic expansionist energies and a reflection of its political liberty and relative material prosperity, W.P. Trent discusses the principal figures and movements in the development of American humor through the 19th century, Jennette Tandy traces the development of the unlettered philosopher as a characteristic...

Since the 1970s, a time when perceptions about women began to change radically, a growing number of women writers have expressed their most deeply felt ideas through humor. In Comic Visions, Female Voices, Barbara Bennett shows how humor tests boundaries and pushes limits, doubly so for women, and that writing combined with laughter is virtually a revolutionary act for women. This study examines the intricate role humor plays in contemporary southern...