Humor, Entertainment, and Popular Culture during World War I

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.

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 pastby 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

Auteur
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.

Contenu
Preface; Karen Randell Introduction: Humor, Entertainment, and Popular Culture During World War One (WWI); Clémentine Tholas-Disset and Karen A. Ritzenhoff PART I: MOVIES TO PLEASE? LAUGHTER, DIVERSION, AND NATIONHOOD IN GREAT WAR FILMS 1. Alf's Button (1920): Comedy in the Trenches; Lawrence Napper 2. Body Politics: National Identity, Performance and Modernity in Maciste Alpino (1916); Francesco Pitassio and Giaime Alonge 3. Hoaxes, ballyhoo stunts, war, and other jokes: humor in the American marketing of Hollywood war films During the Great War; Fabrice Lyzcba 4. Johanna Enlists (1918) and the elliptic portrayal of the Great War in motion pictures; Clémentine Tholas-Disset PART II: A WAR OF WITTY WORDS AND IMAGES: NOVELS, NEWSPAPERS, AND ILLUSTRATIONS 5. War Memoir as Entertainment: Walter Bloem's Vormarsch (1916); Jakub Kazecki 6. Nature and functions of humor in trench newspapers (1914-1918); Koenraad Du Pont 7. The Nuanced Comic Perspectives of the Cartoons in Mr. Punch's Historyof the Great War; Renée Dickason 8. When bande dessinée Goes to War: La Semaine de Suzette and The Birth of A. Breton's Heroïne en négatif; Anne Cirella-Urrutia 9. Marianne in the Trenches; Laurent Bihl PART III: ENTERTAINING ONM STAGE: PLEASURABLE AND POLITICAL LIVE PERFORMANCES 10. The Range of Laughter: First-Person Reports from Entertainers with the Over There Theatre League; Felicia Hardison Londré 11. Humor in British popular song during the Great War: music-hall laughter and trench humor; John Mullen 12. J.M. Barrie and the First World War; Jenna L. Kubly PART IV: PROMOTING WAR VALUES AND ROUTINE, COPING WITH A DIFFERENT SOCIAL ORDER 13. Sugary Celebrations and Culinary Activism: Sugar, Cooking, and Entertaining During World War One; Amy Wells 14. Chunder Goes North: Humor, Advertising, and the Australian Nation in the Bulletin During World War One; Robert Crawford 15. Mobilizing Morale: American Ambulance Drivers and the Road to U.S. Intervention; Adrian T. Lewis 16. SilencingLaughter: Pioneering Director Lois Weber and The Uncanny Gaze in Silent Film; Karen A. Ritzenhoff