
War, Memory, and the Politics of Humor
The Canard Enchaine and World War I
Allen Douglas(Author)
University of California Press
1st Edition
Will be published approx. on 31. May 2002
Book
Hardback
345 pages
978-0-520-22876-4 (ISBN)
Description
War, Memory, and the Politics of Humor features carnage and cannibalism, gender and cross-dressing, drunks and heroes, militarism and memory, all set against the background of World War I France. Allen Douglas shows how a new satiric weekly, the Canard Enchaine, exploited these topics and others to become one of France's most influential voices of reaction to the Great War. The Canard, still published today, is France's leading satiric newspaper and the most successful periodical of the twentieth century, and Douglas colorfully illuminates the mechanisms of its unique style. Following the Canard from its birth in 1915 to the eve of the Great Depression, the narrative reveals a heady mix of word play, word games, and cartoons. Over the years the journal - generally leftist, specifically antimilitarist and anti-imperialist - aimed its shots in all directions, using some stereotypes the twenty-first century might find unacceptable. But Douglas calls its humor an affirmation of life, and as such the most effective antidote to war.
More details
Edition
First Edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Berkerley
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
13 b-w cartoons
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
590 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-520-22876-4 (9780520228764)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
05/2002
1st Edition
Naval Institute Press
€67.49
Available for download
Person
Allen Douglas is Professor of West European Studies and History at Indiana University, Bloomington. His previous books include L'ideologie par la bande (with F. Malti-Douglas, 1987), From Fascism to Libertarian Communism (California, 1992), and Arab Comic Strips (with F. Malti-Douglas, 1994).
Content
List of Illustrations Preface and Acknowledgments Introduction: War, Lies, and Newsprint 1. Satire and Censorship 2. Verbal and Visual, Humor and Politics: Organization as Discourse 3. Unstuffing Skulls: The Canard versus the Mass Press 4. The Tears of L'Intran: Semiotic Hijacking and Wartime Anxieties 5. Soldiers versus Profiteers: Class War as Patriotism 6. In Vino Veritas: De la Fouchardiere, Bicard, and the Politics of Inebriation 7. Peace or Postwar: The Next Last War 8. Web of Memory 9. Between Cannibalism and Resurrection: The Body of the Unknown Soldier 10. Anti-Imperialism and Its Stereotypes: War in the Colonies 11. Politics as Usual: An Antiparliamentarism of the Left? 12. Canard Economics, or the Costs of the War 13. The Wealth of Nations 14. Conclusion: Politics of Humor, Politics of Memory Notes Index