Humor Magazine Research Articles

Was the Cat in the Hat Black?: Exploring Dr. Seuss’s Racial Imagination

Was the Cat in the Hat Black?:Exploring Dr. Seuss’s Racial Imagination Philip Nel (bio) In 1955, Dr. Seuss and William Spaulding—director of Houghton Mifflin’s educational division—stepped into the publisher’s elevator at 2 Park Street in Boston. As Seuss’s biographers tell us, the elevator operator was an elegant, petite woman who wore white gloves and a secret smile (Morgan and Morgan 154). They don’t mention that she was Annie Williams, nor do they say that she was African American (Silvey). Seuss was on that elevator because Spaulding thought he could solve the Why Johnny Can’t Read crisis by writing a better reading primer. When Seuss sketched this book’s feline protagonist, he gave him Mrs. Williams’s white gloves, her sly smile, and her color. However, she is but one African American influence on Seuss’s most famous character. One source for that red bow tie is Krazy Kat, the black, ambiguously gendered creation of biracial cartoonist George Herriman (Cohen 325). Seuss, who admired what he called "the beautifully insane sanities" of Krazy Kat (qtd. in Nel, Dr. Seuss 70), also draws upon the traditions of minstrelsy—an influence that emerges first in a minstrel show he wrote for his high school. The Cat in the Hat is racially complicated, inspired by blackface performance, racist images in popular culture, and actual African Americans. The Cat’s influences help us to track the evolution of the African American cultural imaginary in Seuss’s work, but also, more importantly, to exemplify how children’s literature conceals its own racialized origins. Considering the Cat’s racial complexity both serves as an act of desegregation, acknowledging the "mixed bloodlines" (to borrow Shelley Fisher Fishkin’s phrase) of canonical children’s literature, and highlights how during the 1950s—a turning point for African Americans in children’s literature—picture books were a site where race, representation, and power were actively being contested. Decades before the birth of his Cat in the Hat, racial caricature was an accepted part of Theodor Seuss Geisel’s childhood. D. W. Griffith’s acclaimed Birth of a Nation (1915), released the month Geisel turned eleven, offered a popular and racist depiction of the Civil War and Reconstruction. The Jazz Singer (1927), the first feature-length "talking picture," starred Al Jolson in blackface. One of Geisel’s favorite childhood books, Peter Newell’s The Hole Book (1908), follows a bullet’s [End Page 71] comically disruptive journey through its pages, including one where a black mammy points to the hole in the watermelon, and addresses, in dialect, a group of wide-eyed black children: "‘Who plugged dat melon?’ mammy cried, / As through the door she came. / ‘I’d spank de chile dat done dat trick / Ef I could learn his name’" (fig. 1). Seuss remembered this book so well that sixty years after reading it, he could still quote its opening verse by heart (Nel, Dr. Seuss 18). If, as Tony Watkins has argued, "books tells stories that contribute to children’s unconscious sense of the ‘homeland’" (193), then these stories may have embedded racist caricature in Geisel’s unconscious, as an ordinary part of his visual imagination. Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 1. From Peter Newell, The Hole Book (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1908). Public Domain. Image courtesy Morse Department of Special Collections, Hale Library, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas. Seuss’s Political Evolution: From Early Stereotypes to Opposing Prejudice So, it is not surprising that racial caricature emerges in his work—that he wrote "Chicopee Surprised" and acted in it in blackface, at Springfield High School. Seventeen-year-old Ted Geisel performed as one of the members of the jazz quartet, and as one of the blackfaced "end men" [End Page 72] ("Minstrels Add $300 to Fund for Trip"). Seuss’s early cartoons also offer abundant examples of minstrel-like figures, along with many other stereotypes. A 1923 issue of Jack-o-Lantern, Dartmouth College’s humor magazine (of which he was editor), had a Ted Geisel cartoon in which two thick-lipped black boxers face off. Playing on the fact that one has a slightly lighter skin...

A névelemek sorrendje és kulturális kongruenciája a Borsszem Jankó zsidó figuráinak névanyagában a 20. század első felében

This study is based on previous research, which examined the name stock referring to Jewish characters occurring in a Hungarian humour magazine entitled Borsszem Jankó between 1901 and 1937. This paper focuses on a new aspect of the analysis of the names in a humour magazine: the author discusses the cultural congruence between given names and family names, which proved to be a relevant factor in creating humour with names. In addition, the order of the elements in personal names is also examined. As for the cultural congruence, it can be ascertained that the Hungarian given names stand together with foreign (mostly German) family names for the most part, and the foreign given names appear together with Hungarian family names. Based on this examination the author draws attention to the relevance of this aspect in analysing name stocks of humour magazines in the future.

The Critical Thinking Skills of Teacher Candidates Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus Sampling

Problem Statement: The main function of education is to prepare individuals for life. In this context, education aims to equip individuals throughout the different stages of education, where most of the time individuals learn how they should behave, as well as how to manage problems with effective problem-solving and critical thinking skills. The educational process used to develop critical thinking in teacher candidates is known to be important for the preparation of educational environments; many studies have identified that a large proportion of what teachers teach is what they have learned (Besoluk & Onder, 2010). Therefore, it is important to determine trends in the development of teaching candidates’ critical thinking skills and to address these features in the process of teaching and learning. Purpose of Study: The purpose of this study is to analyze the level of teacher candidates’ critical thinking skills and to determine whether there is a significant difference in their critical thinking skills in terms of teacher candidates’ institutions, gender, and class, and their frequency of reading humor magazines. Methods: The present research used a descriptive kind of general survey model with a quantitative method. Widely used, the descriptive approach aims to identify the condition of interest. Survey models refer to research approaches that aim to describe past or existing situations. The situation, event, individual, or object related to the study is used to determine their terms (Karasar, 2009). Findings and Results: As a result of the study, it was found that teacher candidates’ critical thinking skills displayed significant differences in sensibility of critical thinking skills, consciousness, empathy, adoption, * Dr.: European University of Lefke, Dr. Fazil Kucuk Faculty of Education, , Lefke, Northern Cyprus, Mersin 10, Turkey. eposta: oserin@eul.edu.tr

"Eu vou pra Maracangalha, eu vou...": JK e a Distopia Brasiliæ na música popular e nas charges da revista Careta (1956-1960)

Análise da relação entre música popular e charges satíricas sobre a fundação de Brasília, publicadas na revista humorística Careta. A iniciativa de construção da nova capital pelo governo de Juscelino Kubitschek foi objeto de acesa polêmica, dividindo a opinião pública, além de ser contestada pela União Democrática Nacional – UDN (principal partido de oposição). Inicialmente, investigam-se os usos sociais e apropriações da música popular para fazer a crítica ao projeto de JK. Depois, examinam-se as afinidades entre a revista de humor e a grande imprensa, compartilhando a oposição ao governo federal, bem como a defesa da cultura política liberal. Em seguida, analisa-se a polêmica musical de Brasília, envolvendo diferentes sujeitos, gêneros e práticas sociais. Por fim, através da avaliação da série iconográfica, estudam-se as disputas pelo imaginário social da nova cidade, reinventada como utopia negativa, a distopia Brasiliæ.

Zsidó személynevek és névmagyarosítás a 19. század végi magyar élclapokban

This paper examines the Jewish personal names found in the 1898 volume of the antisemitic humour magazine entitled Herkó Páter [‘Father Herkó’], and presents contemporary judgements about the adoption of Hungarian family names. In the investigation, the author compares her previous observations based on relevant name stocks gained from two non-antisemitic humour magazines (Borsszem Jankó [‘Tom Thumb’] and Üstökös [‘The Comet’]) with the results of her present enquiry into Israelite names. The author points out certain similarities in the naming strategies adopted in the antisemitic and non-antisemitic humour magazines: individual names of biblical origin, family names of similar types, and identical elements in names are observed in both types of magazines. However, some characteristic differences are also demonstrated: in Herkó Páter, there are fewer multi-element family names and surnames containing Yiddish-German elements; telling names – often having scornful meanings in the other two magazines – appear less frequently, and so family names used in Herkó Páter usually sound much less offensive. At the same time, the attitude towards the adoption of Hungarian family names in Herkó Páter – in contrast with the judgement expressed in the above mentioned other magazines – is undoubtedly negative.

Zsidó figurák nevei a Borsszem Jankóban a 20. század első felében

This study examines the names of Jewish characters in a Hungarian humour magazine entitled Borsszem Jankó (‘Tom Thumb’) in issues published between 1901 and 1937. The author compares the name stock of this period with that examined in a previous analysis. It can be ascertained that the new Jewish name-giving practices giving preference to Hungarian first names in the first decades of the 20th century are reflected in the magazine as well. In the surname stock of the Jewish figures, names referring to a personal feature are still dominant. The author also discusses the main characteristics of family names affected by name changes as they appear in the magazine. The morphological and semantic features of the last group of surnames often display the typical purpose of family name changes: choosing a surname which suggests the old and noble origin of the family. The cultural incongruence between first names and Magyarized family names is an important source of humour in the magazine.

Entre a comicidade, o senso comum e a disidência. A revista Humor como espaço controversial (1978-1980)

O artículo aborda a etapa inicial da revista Humor, entre 1978 y 1980, durante a última ditadura militar na Argentina (1976-1983). Neste sentido, procuramos estudar a intervenção do seu público através da seção de cartas dos leitores. Nosso objectivo foi o análise das polémicas dadas na seção; afirmamos que ela foi un espaço de restabelecimento de vínculos sociais interrumpidos pela repressão estatal. Assim mesmo, foram una instancia para que Humor pudesse evaluar os efeitos dos contéudos fornecidos ao leitor. O análise teve como resultado a deteção de duas polémicas sobre questões públicas na seccão. A primeira supõe a representaçao do horror desde o humor gráfico, no caso do genocidio judeu (Shoah); a segunda refere-se a cómo os quadrinhos humorísticos abordam ao outro, entendido pelas classes populares. As duas polémicas forçam a Humor a explicitar os valores do seu projeto editorial e põem em evidéncia os disensos do seu público participante como sinal da heterogeneidade de sus opinhoes. Nosso aporte busca, então, restituir complexidade a visão consolidada com respeito aos actores participantes em Humor como expressão opositora a ditadura.

Nemzetiségi szereplők neveinek összehasonlító elemzése bécsi és magyar élclapokban

The paper compares the personal names appearing in the Viennese humour magazine Figaro and those occurring in some Hungarian humour magazines (Borsszem Jankó [‘Tom Thumb’], Az Üstökös [‘The Comet’]), all published in the 1860s and the 1890s, with the aim of detecting whether surnames and Christian names considered typical of minority groups were identical or different on this and on the other side of the river Lajta. The results show that whilst the Czech and Jewish names quoted in the magazines in the 1860s were rather similar in Vienna and in Pest, in the issues from the end of the 19th century differences were more marked in both the number and the meanings of minority names.

Cafcaf: an Islamic humor magazine, no joke!

Cafcaf is a humor magazine published by a group of religiously conservative Turks, who esteem and uphold what they consider to be Islamic norms and principles in their cartoons. By offering a close reading of Cafcaf, this article sheds light on transformations among Turkey’s Islamic communities. Scholars from a wide range of disciplines have been examining how the Islamic movement in Turkey has shifted course since the late 1990s. To this end, they have been studying the extent to which Islamists in the country have undergone changes with regards to their political aspirations and social attitudes. However, only a handful of these works have analyzed how genres of popular culture have responded to and echoed these transformations. A discussion of Cafcaf fills this gap by demonstrating how a group of Muslim youth reacts and responds to the changing outlooks and lifestyles of Turkey’s Islamists. The cartoons shed light on the efforts among young Muslims to establish a middle ground where they can negotiate their religious identities with their secular surroundings. The cartoons indicate that Muslim youth’s enthusiasm and willingness to attain this goal is sometimes coupled by a cascade of trepidations and hesitations.

Masters of the Comic Book Universe Revealed! , and: From Krakow to Krypton: Jews and Comic Books (review)

Masters of the Comic Book Universe Revealed!, by Arie Kaplan. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2006. 263 pp. $18.95. From Krakow to Krypton: Jews and Comic Books, by Arie Kaplan; forword by Harvey Pekar and J. T. Waldman. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 2008. 225 pp. $25.00. The Jewish contribution to comics in its varied forms - the traditional superhero comic (e.g., Superman), the humor magazine (e.g., MAD Magazine), alternative comics (e.g., RAW), and the graphic novel (e.g., Maus) - is vast and remarkable. Jews have been front and center in all areas of the comics genre, and Arie Kaplan chronicles this fascinating history in From Krakow to Krypton: Jews and Comic Books. An earlier book, Masters of the Comic Book Universe Revealed!, composed of short biographies based heavily on Kaplan's interviews with prominent comics figures, does not focus exclusively on Jewish comic artists and writers. By virtue of the enormous Jewish presence in the comics industry, however, six of the eleven chronologically presented chapters feature Jews (Will Eisner, Jerry Robinson, Stan Lee, Trina Robbins, Art Spiegelman, and Neil Gaiman). Naturally, the first interview in Masters of the Comic Book Universe Revealed! looks at the creator of The Spirit, the head of a seminal cartooning studio, and the father of the graphic novel: Will Eisner. As Kaplan puts it in the reverent tone that permeates much of his book, What Ibsen was to modern drama, what Chaplin was to film, what Rodgers and Hart were to musical theater, Eisner was to comicdom (p. 3). Tb be sure, Kaplan's position as an avid comics fan is apparent throughout, but that does not prevent him from offering criticism when warranted; he correctly critiques Eisner's posthumously published graphic work The Plot, a portrayal of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion conspiracy, for its under-attention to imagery and failure to follow the cardinal rule of comics, show, don't tell (p. 19), and he honestly describes the touchy subject of in-fighting over credit for comic creations between Bill Finger and Bob Kane (pp. 26-27), and Stan Lee with Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, among others (pp. 68-71). Along with drawing out his interview subjects' biographical details, struggles in the field to gain recognition, and various comic influences, in the course of the interviews Kaplan sometimes elicits noteworthy anecdotes. Jerry Robinson, for instance, reveals that Batman's sidekick Robin was inspired by N. C. Wyeth's images of Robin Hood (pp. 29-30). Yet, while the book is anchored by interviews, Kaplan weaves a short history of the American comics industry, both Jewish and non-Jewish, throughout. For example, readers learn which comic makers created which characters, who worked with whom, and how comics were perceived at various times - including Frederick Wertham's infamous assertion in his 1954 study Seduction of the Innocent that comic books corrupted readers and caused juvenile delinquency. Some of the interviews with non-Jewish comic creators are worthy of note, especially Gilbert Hernandez, but it seems as if in a few instances Kaplan aimed for diversity rather than talking with the most influential masters of the universe; the five gentiles he profiles are Hernandez, a Latino; Kyle Baker, Dwayne McDuffie, and Ho Che Anderson, African Americans; and Marjane Satrapi, an Iranian. It is Satrapi whose inclusion feels the most forced. Certainly Persepolis is a graphic novel milestone, but this work, published in 2003 and followed by Persepolis 2 in 2004 and two other graphic novels before Kaplans book went to press (the movie version of Persepolis had not yet been picked up by a studio), does not a mistress of the universe yet make. Highly influential figures like R. Crumb and Alan Moore, non-Jews, are absent, but perhaps they did not agree to an interview. As for Jews, Aline Kominsky-Crumb would have been an interesting artist to include, as would the writers Chris Claremont and Harvey Pekar. …

Magyar élclapok nem magyar nemzetiségű szereplőinek nevei a 19. század második felében

This study examines whether the family names of characters of non-Hungarian nationality appearing in humour magazines of the 1860s and 1890s bear some resemblance to real-life family names of the era occurring in official registers. Relevant data were collected from two popular contemporary humour magazines, entitled “Üstökös” and “Borsszem Jankó”. The collected family names tend to inform us about the social status as well as the nationality of the indicated characters; thus, family names as ethnic symbols can clearly differentiate Hungarian and non-Hungarian figures in the magazines. By comparing the name stocks of the two observed periods, one can deduce that in the 1860s Jewish names were not dominant in these papers; in the 1890s, however, most non-Hungarian names were Jewish, which resulted in a reduced name stock: the names of the non-Jewish characters appeared less frequently and in fewer variations than in the 1860s. The author also discusses how the process of Magyarization of family names was reflected in the magazines.

Vernacular Punches: Cartoons and Politics in Colonial India

Why has the story of the vernacular cartoon‐based newspapers in colonial India, which were versions of the British Punch, remained obscure? Specifically, what does the story of the Urdu Punch and Hindi Punch among other vernacular Punches tell us about colonial politics? Approaching memory and history as forms of knowledge, this article draws upon archival research to construct an alternate history of Punch and the vernacular Punches in colonial India. By focusing on two plots—the fate in India of the British humour magazine Punch and a debate around humour in vernacular cartoons—this paper brings attention to the cartoon as a space for rethinking the history of Punch and the narrative of mimicry and modernity. I argue that memory of cultural practices, such as cartooning, can be hegemonic and tactical.

Parody and Poetic Tradition: Gilbert and Sullivan's Patience

Parody and Poetic Tradition:Gilbert and Sullivan's Patience Carolyn Williams (bio) Parodies of aestheticism were common fare by the time Patience was produced in 1881. Even so, Patience was recognized as "the most subtle and incisive of all the contributions to the exhaustive satire of aestheticism." It is "deeper than the rest," said the astute reviewer for the Illustrated London News, because it performs "a travesty not only on the mere decorative craze, but upon the form of literature that is supposed to be held in high esteem by the ardent lovers of the beautiful in art" (italics mine).1 As this contemporary assessment shows, reference to "the decorative craze" was one contemporary default parameter for characterizing aestheticism. In our own day, instead, it is most common to associate aestheticism with a fin-de-siècle loosening of Victorian norms of gender and sexuality. Between then and now, however, the point articulated by the reviewer for the Illustrated London News has been overlooked, while W. S. Gilbert's deep engagement with nineteenth-century poetry and poetics has been relatively unacknowledged.2 Patience launched a complex genre parody, directed against Victorian poetry in general. The parody is developed through the rivalry between Reginald Bunthorne, an "aesthetic poet," and Archibald Grosvenor, an "idyllic poet." Thus dividing Victorian poetry into two camps and making fun of both, the libretto manages, by implication, to comment on a long nineteenth-century history of Romantic and Victorian poetry, and it shows Gilbert to have been exceptionally well-informed about poetic controversy in the decades before Patience. The fact that this aspect of Patience has not been explored is all the more surprising, since it bears directly upon the opera's concern with changing gender norms, as well as its analysis of class. The Clerical Version Before his collaboration with Sullivan began, Gilbert published comic ballads under the pen name "Bab" (short for "Babby," his infant nickname). Most of them were published in Fun magazine, a popular humor magazine that was, for a while, the chief rival to Punch. These Bab Ballads took part in the Victorian efflorescence of comic and nonsense verse and were also a late flowering of the widespread interest in ballad revivals and ballad parodies that spans the nineteenth century. The germ of Patience appears in one of Gilbert's [End Page 375] Bab Ballads, "The Rival Curates," first published in 1867. In "The Rival Curates," two clergymen vie for the honor of being known as the mildest and most insipid curate in the neighborhood. Gilbert had written about two-thirds of an opera libretto based on his ballad, when he abandoned it in favor of the rivalry between two "Aesthetic fanatics, worshiped by a chorus of female aesthetics" (Stedman, p. 287). As he later explained, he "became uneasy at the thought of the danger [he] was incurring by dealing so freely with members of the clerical order, and [he] felt . . . crippled at every turn by the necessity of protecting [himself] from a charge of irreverence."3 The Church was still off-limits for theatrical parody and satire. Luckily for us, the clerical version of Patience survives in manuscript and offers clear evidence that curates prefigured the aesthetes.4 The name of the central clergyman, praised for "his exceeding mildness" and "his lamblike innocence" provides one hint of what the clerical version of the opera might have promised. That character was to have been called "The Reverend Lawn Tennison." His name gathers together a quiver of barbs, aimed against the supposed blandness of curates, against haute-bourgeois leisure pastimes, and against the Poet Laureate. As we will see, Tennyson remains an active object of parody in the final version of Patience. But for now, we should pause briefly to appreciate the cleric behind the aesthete, whose "style is much too sanctified, [whose] cut is too canonical."5 "The Rival Curates" tells of Mr. Clayton Hooper, of Spifftonextra Sooper, and his rival Hopley Porter, curate of nearby Assesmilk-cum-Worter. These amusing place-names emphasize the premise that curates might be associated with bland fatuity and excessive mildness. (For the text of the poem, see Appendix.) In this ballad, the sort of insipidity...

Should Women Vote?

Should Women Vote? E. Thomas Ewing (bio), Heather L. Gumbert (bio), David Hicks (bio), Jane L. Lehr (bio), Amy Nelson (bio), and Robert P. Stephens (bio) On 13 July 1910, the English humor magazine Punch published a cartoon depicting a woman pushing a rock labeled “Women’s Suffrage” up a steep hillside labeled “Parliament (Figure 1).” A caption under the picture exclaims “Excelsior!” It is followed by this statement: Suffragist: “It’s no good talking to me about Sisyphus; he was only a man!” The well–dressed woman pushes the rock in a pose suggesting strength, while she gazes directly at the viewer with a determined look on her face. The landscape behind her fades into distant mountains and clouds, leaving no means to judge whether she is approaching the summit.1 A brilliant device for teaching about women’s suffrage, this cartoon provides numerous access points for engaging students in discussion and analysis. The cartoon visually illustrates the central issue: could suffrage advocates persuade Parliament to alter voting statutes? This conflict is illustrated by the determination of the suffragists (symbolized by the woman pushing the boulder up the hill) and the resistance created by Parliament (that is, the force required to push this boulder against gravity up a seemingly unconquerable slope). At the same time, the caption, with its ironic statement (“he was only a man”), validates the larger claim of the suffrage movement that women were not just proving their rights as citizens, but also demonstrating their superior moral and ethical standards. The references embedded in the cartoon thus provoke a more in–depth analysis of multiple meanings. Contemporary students are likely to have some familiarity with the myth of Sisyphus, who was punished for his cleverness by spending eternity in Tartarus pushing a rock up a mountain only to have it fall to the bottom, forcing him to begin all over again. Yet the invocation of this myth in a different historical and political context raises the question of whether women’s struggle for equal rights was a Sisyphean sentence of endless frustration or whether, as the caption suggests, a woman might achieve what a mythical man could not. The title “Excelsior!” represents an even more subtle teaching challenge. Standard dictionary definitions, i.e. “wood shavings used for packing,” [End Page 144] make no sense in this context; it is only by referencing a dictionary with an extensive etymology that the “right” meaning can be found: in Latin, “still higher.” This additional knowledge clarifies the cartoon’s perspective, exhorting women to push still higher to achieve their desired goal. Exposing students to these multiple layers of meaning, from the most obvious images through symbolic references to more obscure textual elements, demonstrates how reading primary sources can yield complex understandings of significant historical processes. Recognizing that these amalgams of text and image are not self–explanatory or simply illustrative requires that students employ the methodologically advanced reading skills acquired through the study of primary sources in a history course. Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 1. “Excelsior!” Punch, 13 July 1910. This cartoon offers a useful place to begin this discussion of teaching about the women’s suffrage in Europe in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The suffrage campaign achieved considerable visibility throughout Europe during this period as women mobilized to pressure their governments to expand the rights denied by sex to one–half of the adult population. At the same time, as this cartoon suggests, resistance to suffrage became a significant political force as both governments and organized groups sought to preserve restrictions on women’s rights. To [End Page 145] understand this subject, students need to know about historical context, the contributions of important leaders, the differences between countries, and the chronology of campaigns. Just as important, however, students need the analytical skills to identify point of view, to explain processes of change, and to connect historical examples to contemporary situations. This pedagogical approach teaches students that, in the words of historian Sandra Stanley Holton, the history of women’s suffrage, “like all history, is contested ground, and remains always a provisional and partial form of knowledge.”2 To pursue the objective...

Therapy Is Sometimes a Laughing Matter

Therapy Is Sometimes a Laughing Matter

Jubilee: A Magazine of the Church and Her People: Toward a Vatican II Ecclesiology

Jubilee: A Magazine of the Church and Her People:Toward a Vatican II Ecclesiology Mary Anne Rivera (bio) Introduction This article explores the theology of the Church in the modern world from 1953 to 1967 as reported in Jubilee: A Magazine of the Church and Her People, which claimed to be the "first national picture magazine for a Catholic audience."1 It will examine the Catholic monthly as a vehicle for communicating Christian culture and will describe and evaluate the ways in which Jubilee drew on preexisting themes to prepare the Church and the world for its reception of Vatican II. This data will be used to interpret what the Church came to understand about its nature, identity, mission, and structure. Second, this study will show what aspects of Jubilee's ecclesiology lived on to be embodied in the constitutions of the Second Vatican Council: Sacrosanctum Concilium, Lumen Gentium, and Gaudium et Spes. Through the eye of the camera and with the skill of writers and editors, Jubilee offered a new vision of the Church "in all her beauty: her intellectual eminence, her hard work, her charity, her spirit of true peace."2 As the first national pictorial monthly for a Catholic audience, Jubilee provided a unique window onto the Church in the modern world. Through this medium, the Church and her people [End Page 77] were seen in all their beauty and diversity, and there was nothing remote about the events or ideas of the Church and her people; they were contemporary. Through its use of modern journalistic techniques, Jubilee revealed a Christendom that "goes back to Adam, is as broad as the world and as deep as the wisdom of Catholicism."3 In this broad field, Jubilee's editors, writers, and readers were repeatedly reminded that Christianity was constantly being acted out in the daily lives of its people, in towns, cities, nations, and continents. Its original editors, Edward Rice, Thomas Merton, and Robert Lax, were also well aware of the fact that atheistic propaganda had gained the loyalty of millions of Catholics by exploiting their religious indifference, ignorance, and complacency.4 They saw the need for Christians to reorient themselves in a changing world and addressed this religious need of the day—to communicate the living truths of Catholicism to a world that did not know her. For Rice and Lax, their dual goals were "to produce a Catholic literary magazine that would act as a forum for addressing issues confronting the contemporary church together with a practical discussion of issues that Catholics dealt with in their daily lives."5 Jubilee's message highlighted the Christian ideology and sociology to show how the Truth of Christ was borne "by the ordinary people of His Church: housewife, worker, teacher, mystic, farmer, businessman, monk, priest, brother and sister—the living, working, praying, thinking Church."6 Its photographic essays were designed to show "the breath of the Lord God to the farthest confines of His world."7 Jubilee magazine, the work of Catholics both lay and religious, witnessed the Church's existence and "documented the struggles of people (far from all of them Catholic) to live the Word given us so long ago."8 The goal of this study is to listen to the many voices speak, and to recover from their informal language the prevailing "popular" ecclesiology operative from 1953 to 1967. [End Page 78] The Founding of Jubilee Magazine Jubilee magazine was a public proclamation of "Jubilate Deo, omnis terra" (Shout with joy to God, all the earth). For its founder, Edward Rice, the magazine proclaimed the "cheerfulness and joy" of everyday life and was a concrete expression of the believers' experience of God. Since their student days at Columbia University, Edward Rice, Robert Lax, and Thomas Merton speculated about starting "a really good" Catholic magazine. In 1936 Rice met Lax and Merton while working on the campus humor magazine, The Jester, and quickly joined the group of campus bohemians, "the beat community," led by "Chief Merton." Robert Giroux, a former classmate, described this troika as "the three musketeers . . . good pals, highly sophisticated, with good senses of humor and very artistic."9 Based on her reading of Merton...

Modernity as Masquerade: Representations of Modernity and Identity in Turkish Humour Magazines

This article aims at an alternative analysis of Turkish “modernity” by analysing the representations in a popular humour magazine. This study departs from the idea that representations in “low” discourses in Turkey can provide us with a text other than those of the official-dominant discourses in order to see how the certainty and positivity attributed to the modern identity in the dominant ideology is elaborated, demystified, and subverted as well as contained. Essentially, in the magazine, one of the main sources of humour derives from the clash of two main identities, between those who are modern, civil, urban, and effeminate and those who are traditional, uncivil, rural, and super-masculine. In the modern urban space, the modern and traditional become a stake in the power struggles between groups. This struggle operates through tastes, styles, and the body, which are at the same time means of identity construction as well as marks of identity. This duality and the concomitant dualities have come to structure all significatory practices to such an extent that everything gets symbolically overloaded by these series of dualities. In this struggle, the essence and appearance duality is the main framework within which Turkey's modernity and identity are represented. “Modernity” is signified as a masquerade, a play of appearances and a stake in the power struggles among groups rather than as a measure of progress. Bodies, sexuality, and masculinity become the nodal points of the expression of identity struggles, not only of social groups but also of the Turkish nation.

Conversation with George Vaillant

Conversation with George Vaillant

Urban Pioneers: The Role of Women in the Local Government of Santiago, Chile, 1935–1946

Friedman, along with the anonymous reviewers of the HAHR and editor Mary Kay Vaughn for their very helpful comments in the preparation of this article. 1. El Mercurio (Santiago), 29 Jan. 2000, pp. A1 and C2. 2. El Mercurio, 14 Mar. 2000, p. 1. 3. The principal concern among the coalition that supported Larrachea’s candidacy when it was announced was that she would be defeated by her most likely main opponent, Conservative Joaquin Lavin, who had narrowly lost to Lagos in the national election. This would leave the president in the awkward position of having to collaborate with his leading rival in the governance of the nation’s capital—which, indeed, is exactly what happened. 4. Marin received only a little more than 3% of the vote in the first round of balloting in 1999. While there is some debate over the matter, that 3% appeared to go primarily to Lagos in the second round, giving him his narrow margin of victory over Lavin. El Mercurio, 10 Feb. 2000, p. C2.

“WARNING—Do not risk federal arrest by looking glum!”: Ballyhoo Magazine and the Cultural Politics of Early 1930s Humor

In August 1931, a surprising new humor magazine burst onto the American scene. Edited by veteran comic artist and writer Norman Anthony, the breezily irreverent Ballyhoo sold out its initial printing of 150,000 copies almost overnight. Purportedly produced by the fictional Zilch family (led by patriarch Elmer Zilch), Ballyhoo consisted of cartoons and of hilarious burlesques of the overblown claims of advertisements. Although the most important histories of American advertising mention Ballyhoo's existence, none offers any detailed analysis of the magazine's comic strategies or any explanation of its popular appeal (Marchand 312-14, Lears 240). In what follows, I will argue that Ballyhoo consistently emphasized three major themes that had considerable appeal audiences in the early years of the Great Depression and helped shape popular consciousness in very particular ways. First, by offering pointed critiques of the emerging consumer culture, these parodie ads relentlessly exposed the techniques used by advertisers, presenting them as invariably fraudulent and designed dupe unwary shoppers into purchasing useless, unnecessary, and even dangerous products. Second, the magazine parodied the mass circulation newspapers and periodicals in which these deceptive ads appeared, in ways that suggested that the press had sacrificed journalistic integrity and their important role in democracy in favor of a sensationalism and overt bias that produced quick profits. Finally, Ballyhoo combined these barbed assessments of mass culture with equally scathing attacks on the businessmen and politicians who had led the nation into the Depression, equating the deceptive claims of advertisers with the political pronouncements of Herbert Hoover and his wealthy allies. These satirical jibes at business and political leaders soon developed into a more general and class-conscious critique of the dominance of wealthy people and their values in American culture and political life. Like much other comic popular culture of the early 1930s, Ballyhoo thus helped organize popular common sense, discrediting the probusiness ideologies of the 1920s and affirming a less materialistic, more civic-minded and egalitarian vision of citizenship. The widespread appeal of this alternative view of American culture and politics is suggested in the fact that by its sixth issue, Ballyhoo's press run had risen nearly two million copies (Sloane 26). The new magazine was edited by Norman Anthony, who had begun his career as a freelance cartoonist, but who soon joined the staff oi Judge, a humor magazine aimed at a relatively highbrow audience. Anthony thought Judge's humor dull and old-fashioned, and in 1923 he persuaded the editor let him put out an issue burlesquing advertisements. This was such a success that he was appointed editor, and he changed the magazine dramatically, adding many more cartoons, new novelty humor sections, and features about various urban entertainments. He also created parodies of well-known magazines like the Saturday Evening Post, which would, along with the advertising issue, become the model for Ballyhoo. In less than a year, he had raised weekly circulation from 30,000 100,000 copies (Anthony 38-65). Anthony's success led his being offered the editorship of Life, Judge's main competition in the humor magazine field, in 1928. Again, Anthony shook up a stodgy highbrow journal, changing layouts, adding many more cartoons, and launching overtly political campaigns against Prohibition and on other current issues. Again, his innovations quickly increased circulationfrom 40,000 100,000 copies a week- but advertisers were unhappy with the changes. Anthony later recounted that he was instructed by the owner, Gibson Girl creator Charles Dana Gibson, to stop worrying about boosting the newsstand sales, and just concentrate on getting out a nice conservative magazine that would please the advertisers! (Anthony 93-100). …