David Kunzle Research Articles

"Will You Give Me Your Opinion?": Mundane Beauty in the Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine, 1860–75

"Will You Give Me Your Opinion?":Mundane Beauty in the Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine, 1860–75 Jessica P. Clark (bio) In February 1868 the Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine printed a letter enquiring about experiences with hair treatments. Correspondent C. M. R. requested advice from readers of the "Englishwoman's Conversazione" on a widely available commercial hair restorer. On news that Mrs. Allen's Dressing caused itchy red scalps in two acquaintances, "I bethought," she wrote, "of your invaluable Conversazione, which so often helps us out of difficulties"; she felt "most thankful if any of your subscribers who may have used this preparation will kindly inform me whether the result was similar in their case."1 C. M. R.'s letter set off a chain of responses over the coming months, including a warning from respondent Constance that Mrs. Allen's Dressing contained hazardous amounts of mercury. Constance's disclosure in turn prompted a defensive response from the distributor, who asserted the "natural" makeup of his company's product and impugned Constance's motives.2 Other responses followed both refuting and supporting Constance's charge, accompanied by correspondents' own tried-and-true personal recipes for hair restorers. Exchanges like that of C. M. R. and her contemporaries illuminate the role of the correspondence column as a textual community of participants, as defined by Margaret Beetham and Lynn Warren. The conversazione functioned as a textual forum where female interlocutors engaged in the production of personal and collective meanings. According to Beetham and Warren, columns could operate as relatively independent entities despite editorial attempts to manage their content, forging a sense of belonging to a discursive milieu populated by textual identities.3 As part of this exchange, participants in the "Englishwoman's Conversazione" periodically debated daily practices of bodily management despite popular opprobrium of female beautification through the mid-nineteenth century. Indeed, in addition [End Page 540] to questions about fashion and needlework, the column encouraged a widening circle of consumer knowledge encompassing a commercially conscious public sphere of citizens who debated the efficacy and, more importantly, the safety of widely available beauty products. Although C. M. R. reportedly discussed hair treatments with two friends, she relied on the larger community of the Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine's correspondents to substantiate their negative claims. She placed her trust in a textual community of women facilitated by the popular press in an effort to buttress traditional forms of advice shared among female intimates. Her effort bore fruit; it elicited Constance's response that exposed the dangerous chemical makeup of the hair product, a factor unbeknownst to C. M. R.'s unfortunate acquaintances. C. M. R.'s letter, with its focus on health and beauty, appeared at a moment when the Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine was embroiled in a contentious and highly documented debate over corset training, first ignited in March 1867. In that same year, another sensational correspondence emerged. This time the topic of corporal punishment eclipsed the tight-lacing debate in terms of length and public censure, adding further infamy to the conversazione.4 Historians of Victorian sexuality have fixed on these two correspondences as instances of what Mary Poovey terms "boundary work," a moment of ideological disjuncture that reveals conflicting expectations of female sexuality and desire.5 For some, like David Kunzle, the letters represent subcultural expressions of desire circulating in Victorian society. He argues that women adopted tight-lacing in its erotic context as a fetishized practice and not, as some earlier scholars attest, a symbol of subordination.6 For others, like Ros Ballaster, Margaret Beetham, Elizabeth Frazer, and Sandra Hebron, the correspondence about tight-lacing emerged in part because of editorial strategies that presented multiple, contradictory forms of femininity, situating female readers as domestic managers but also desirable women. Samuel Beeton, publisher of the Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine, bolstered readers' sense of desirability through his masculine "semi-flirtatious tone" when replying to readers' queries on love and romance.7 More recently, Margaret Beetham and Sharon Marcus shifted the discussion to consider the whipping and corset debates as complex expressions of female hetero- and homoerotic desire made widely available to women readers.8 With its suggestive glimpses into gendered and sexual...

Comedy, Caricature and the Social Order, 1820-50 by Brian Maidment

Reviewed by: Comedy, Caricature and the Social Order, 1820-50 by Brian Maidment Rosalind Crone Maidment, Brian — Comedy, Caricature and the Social Order, 1820-50. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2013. Pp. 256. “Respectability” is under attack. In recent years, a number of scholars have set out to expose the complexities inherent in respectable culture, redefine the Victorians’ relationship to it, and question the extent to which its emergence between 1820 and 1840 signalled such a decisive break with the past. The latest challenge comes from Brian Maidment’s book, Comedy, Caricature and the Social Order, 1820–50. Contrary to the belief held by a sizeable proportion of undergraduates and even a number of nineteenth-century historians, middle-class Victorians did know how to laugh. Comic images — including caricatures, puns and satires — were an important part of early Victorian, as well as Regency, print culture. In fact, by spanning both periods, Maidment’s book demonstrates that not only was the comic art produced in both periods linked by common themes and traditions, but that far from representing a period of decline, as historians have argued in the past (for example, David Kunzle and V.A.C. Gatrell), 1820–50 was a moment of great innovation and activity in this area. Although the images themselves typically became smaller, especially with the decline of the single-plate caricature, the rise of techniques such as wood engraving and lithography, combined with new outlets [End Page 567] for publication (journals, fiction and scraps), meant that comic images could now be purchased and consumed by mass audiences. The expanding audience for comic images, Maidment argues, also affected a change in the themes and key narratives portrayed by the artists. Whereas the early decades of the nineteenth century were dominated by political and personal satires, from 1820 these fell into decline in the face of a rising interest in social relationships, in particular, images of tradespeople and their lives. Humorous images of such people on the city streets, including their encounters with those of higher social standing, reflected the “urban anxieties” of the middle classes. Maidment presents an especially rich case study of the comic images satirising the “March of Intellect” during the 1830s. Through images of a “world turned upside down”, including the chaotic upsets caused by labourers neglecting their work to pursue new intellectual pursuits, artists drew attention to the challenges confronting the social hierarchy through mass education, widening access to print culture and the expanding social aspirations of the skilled working classes. Yet even though comic images articulated the anxieties of the middle classes, at the same time they functioned as a coping mechanism for these consumers: the cathartic release provided by humour, by laughing at the absurdities presented, ensured fears were rationalised and put into proportion. Change, however, can be overemphasised and one of the great strengths of Maidment’s book is its attention to crucial continuities in comic imagery. Caricatures etched and engraved during the first few decades of the nineteenth century were often adapted for the new marketplace, a significant number appearing in published collections even in the last decades of the century, thus extending the “cultural influence” of this work into a period often regarded as deeply respectable. The “miseries” genre, in which the inconveniences of city life were exposed and poked fun at, although so apt at encapsulating that “urban anxiety” of the middle classes, was in fact developed at the turn of the nineteenth century to indulge the Regency vision of a picturesque and picaresque city. Finally, as Maidment tells us, one of the triumphs of Punch was the ability of its artists to embrace a more naturalistic style in the presentation of characters (such as the Dustman) while still incorporating subtle elements of the grotesque. Maidment achieves this impressive level of analysis through his attention to detail in studying the range of comic images produced during the first half of the nineteenth century. Comedy, Caricature and the Social Order, 1820–50 tells us a great deal about the content of the images and the market conditions in which they were produced. However, Maidment has less to say about the ways in which such images were consumed, though...

Patricia Mainardi. Review of "Rodolphe Töpffer: The Complete Comic Strips" by David Kunzle and David Kunzle and "Father of the Comic Strip: Rodolphe Töpffer" by David Kunzle.

Patricia Mainardi. Review of "Rodolphe Töpffer: The Complete Comic Strips" by David Kunzle and David Kunzle and "Father of the Comic Strip: Rodolphe Töpffer" by David Kunzle.

Sketching Under the Influence? Winsor McCay and the Question of Aesthetic Convergence Between Comic Strips and Film

The formal similarities between comic strips and film have often sparked a contentious debate about aesthetic intersections between the two mediums as well as discussions of influence. Comic historian David Kunzle, drawing from the work of Francis Lacassin, has described how characteristics of film form can be traced back to comic strips of the mid to late 1800s. Film historian Donald Crafton, on the other hand, posits that comic strips had little, if any, influence over the evolution of film language. Analyzing both Winsor McCay’s comic strips and animated adaptations, this article hopes to utilize historically informed textual analysis to complicate the question of aesthetic influence.

William Hogarth's A Harlot's Progress: the beginnings of a purely pictographic sequential language

There have been numerous attempts to draw attention to the role of William Hogarth in the history of sequential art. Scott McCloud has cited Hogarth as one of the precursors of pictographic narratives, and Robert Crumb acknowledged the influence that the English engraver and painter has had in his work. But in spite of constant homage, it still remains unclear in which ways the language of comics is indebted to the narrative techniques Hogarth applied in sequential groups of engravings such as A Harlot's Progress, The Rake's Progress, Marriage -la-Mode or Industry and Idleness. Hogarth's scholars have thoroughly studied the aesthetic aspects of his work but generally dismissed its sequential devices, with the fortunate exception of David Kunzle, who placed Hogarth's sequential prints in the much wider context of the European broadsheet and the narrative strip. The purpose of this article is to analyse in a systematic manner Hogarth's sequential devices using his first long narration, A Harlot's Progress (1732), as a paradigm of his narrative style. It will use C. S. Peirce's terminology to distinguish between two types of pictographic signs: symbols, which are systematically inserted in the dramatic setting in order to give metaphoric clues to the personality and background of the characters; and indexes, which function in a metonymic manner as causal clues to the events not depicted in the image. This distinction will allow us to defend our central thesis in this article: these two types of visual signs, metaphoric and metonymic, which allowed Hogarth to evoke unrepresented events in the blank space between images, are the starting point of a purely pictographic sequential language that, after undergoing many transformations, eventually led to what we call comics today.

Father of the Comic Strip: Rodolphe Topffer by David Kunzle and Rodolphe Topffer: The Complete Comic Strips. Compiled, Translated, and Annotated by David Kunzle

Father of the Comic Strip: Rodolphe Topffer by David Kunzle and Rodolphe Topffer: The Complete Comic Strips. Compiled, Translated, and Annotated by David Kunzle

The Language of comics: word and image

With essays by Jan Baetens, David A. Berona, Frank L. Cioffi, N. C. Christopher Couch, Robert C. Harvey, Gene Kannenberg, Jr., Catherine Khordoc, David Kunzle, Marion D. Perret, and Todd Taylor. In our culture, which depends increasingly on images for instruction and recreation, it is important to ask how words and images make meaning when they are combined. Comics, one of the most widely read media of the twentieth century, serves as an ideal for focusing an investigation on the word-and-image question. This collection of essays attempts to give an answer. The first six see words and images as separate art forms that play with or against each other. David Kunzle finds that words restrict the meaning of the art of Adolphe Willette and Theophile-Alexandre Steinlen in Le Chat Noir. David A. Berona, examining wordless novels, argues that the ability to read pictures depends on the ability to read words. Todd Taylor draws on classical rhetoric to demonstrate that images in The Road Runner are more persuasive than words. N. C. Christopher Couch--writing on The Yellow Kid--and Robert C. Harvey--discussing early New Yorker cartoons--are both interested in the historical development of the partnership between words and images in comics. Frank L. Cioffi traces a disjunctive relationship of opposites in the work of Andrzej Mleczko, Ben Katchor, R. Crumb, and Art Spiegelman. The last four essays explore the integration of words and images. Among five comic book adaptations of Hamlet Marion D. Perret finds one in which words and images form a dialectic. Jan Baetens critiques the semiotically inspired theory of Phillippe Marion. Catherine Khordoc explores speech balloons in Asterix the Gaul. Gene Kannenberg, Jr., demonstrates how the Chicago-based artist Chris Ware blurs the difference between word and image. The Language of Comics, however, is the first collection of critical essays on comics to explore a single issue as it affects a variety of comics.

David Kunzle. Review of "The Aesthetics of Comics" by David Carrier.

David Kunzle. Review of "The Aesthetics of Comics" by David Carrier.

Beyond the Funnies: Comic Books, History, and Hegemony

Fifteen years ago a reader in search of something more than descriptive histories of comic art would have been hard pressed to find works in English beyond three or four books and a few scattered journal articles. Much of what was available simply suggested that the popularity of comics alone justified their study and that comics reflected popular concerns. Two books that stood out from the pack were the first volume of David Kunzle's magisterial History of the Comic Strip and Martin Barker's The Haunt of Fears. Kunzle analyzed the European graphic narrative tradition arguing that these were early comic strips but took the tale only to the end of the eighteenth century. Barker discussed the British anti-horror comic campaign of the 1950s. The direct impact of these works on those interested in American comics was rather limited, but their themes and methods resonate through the better works on comics now being published.' In the time since, the University Press of Mississippi has carved a niche for itself in the comics' field by publishing important works by Joseph Witek, Robert Harvey, and Amy Kiste Nyberg. Additionally

Review essay

Nicaragua Remade: Rascally Signs in Sacred Places: the politics of culture in Nicaragua by David E. Whisnant, and The Murals of Revolutionary Nicaragua, 1979–1992, by David Kunzle

A History of Women's Bodies. Edward ShorterFashion and Fetishism: A Social History of the Corset, Tight-Lacing, and Other Forms of Body-Sculpture in the West. David KunzleAmerican Beauty: A Social History through Two Centuries of the American Idea, Ideal, and Image of the Beautiful Woman. Lois W. BannerChannels of Desire: Mass Images and the Shaping of American Consciousness. Stuart Ewen ,

<i>A History of Women's Bodies</i>. Edward Shorter<i>Fashion and Fetishism: A Social History of the Corset, Tight-Lacing, and Other Forms of Body-Sculpture in the West</i>. David Kunzle<i>American Beauty: A Social History through Two Centuries of the American Idea, Ideal, and Image of the Beautiful Woman</i>. Lois W. Banner<i>Channels of Desire: Mass Images and the Shaping of American Consciousness</i>. Stuart Ewen ,

The First Ally Sloper: The Earliest Popular Cartoon Character as a Satire on the Victorian Work Ethic

The First Ally Sloper: The Earliest Popular Cartoon Character as a Satire on the Victorian Work Ethic Get access DAVID KUNZLE DAVID KUNZLE Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Oxford Art Journal, Volume 8, Issue 1, 1985, Pages 40–48, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxartj/8.1.40 Published: 01 March 1985

Book Reviews: Fashion and Fetishism by Alison Lurie, London: Heineman, 1982, pp 256, £10 and xxiii + 359, $27.50 The Language of Clothes by David Kunzle, New Jersey: Roman and Littlefield, 1982, pp £5.95

Book Reviews: Fashion and Fetishism by Alison Lurie, London: Heineman, 1982, pp 256, £10 and xxiii + 359, $27.50 The Language of Clothes by David Kunzle, New Jersey: Roman and Littlefield, 1982, pp £5.95

Comment on Helene E. Roberts's "The Exquisite Slave: The Role of Clothes in the Making of the Victorian Woman" and David Kunzle's "Dress Reform as Antifeminism" (Vol. 2, No. 3)

Previous articleNext article No AccessLetters/CommentsComment on Helene E. Roberts's "The Exquisite Slave: The Role of Clothes in the Making of the Victorian Woman" and David Kunzle's "Dress Reform as Antifeminism" (Vol. 2, No. 3)Joanna RussJoanna Russ Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Signs Volume 3, Number 2Winter, 1977 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/493495 Views: 2Total views on this site Copyright 1977 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Reply to David Kunzle's "Dress Reform as Antifeminism: A Response to Helene E. Roberts's 'The Exquisite Slave'" (Vol. 2, No. 3)

Reply to David Kunzle's "Dress Reform as Antifeminism: A Response to Helene E. Roberts's 'The Exquisite Slave'" (Vol. 2, No. 3)

History of the Comic Strip. David Kunzle

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsHistory of the Comic Strip. David Kunzle Kathleen WellmanKathleen Wellman Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Journal of Modern History Volume 49, Number 2Jun., 1977 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/241572 Views: 3Total views on this site Copyright 1977 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

The Comic Strip and Film Language

The comic strip is now becoming intellectually respectable in somewhat the same way that film did, three or four decades ago. Studies of contemporary strips abound; serious artists are using the form for their own purposes-often, of course, satirical purposes. As the French historian Francis Lacassin argues in the pioneering article below, the or syntax of the comic strip shows many similarities to (and certain historical priorities over) the language of film. The article has been translated by David Kunzle, author of the forthcoming The Early Comic Strip: Narrative Strips and Picture Stories in the European Broadsheet, c. 1450-1826--a sociocultural history of the first mass medium's origins-and he adds notes of his own which qualify some of Lacassin's findings and extend them even further back in time.