“It’s Just A Joke”: Tracing Portrayals Of Womanhood In Women’s Humor
- ASU Author/Contributor (non-ASU co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Camaryn Crump (Creator)
- Institution
- Appalachian State University (ASU )
- Web Site: https://library.appstate.edu/
- Advisor
- Carl Eby
Abstract: This project conducts a comparative study of humorous works by three female authors to investigate portrayals of womanhood. I conduct a genealogical study using nineteenth-century sketches by satirist Marietta Holley, Elaine Dundy's The Dud Avocado (1958), and Torrey Peters' Detransition, Baby (2021) exploring how women's humor evolves with the construct of womanhood. Because these three authors are from different periods, I consider the historical context which each author publishes to compare the issues these women face. The issue of the "woman's sphere," a nineteenth-century buzzword that labeled women's "place," is the connecting and evolving thread in this study. This buzzword points to a continued separation of men and women demarcating the proper rules women must follow well into the twenty-first century. Double consciousness applies to the "sphere" and its outcomes by linking continuities of ideological barriers attached to womanhood, and should be explored in a tradition of women's humor. Each author in my study wrestles with the complexity of womanhood; however, each approaches this issue through varied styles of humor. A varied style points to an evolving humorous form; therefore, I argue that women's humor and identity should not be understood as separate entities, but parallel features evolving together.
“It’s Just A Joke”: Tracing Portrayals Of Womanhood In Women’s Humor
PDF (Portable Document Format)
2449 KB
Created on 7/28/2023
Views: 275
Additional Information
- Publication
- Thesis
- Crump, C. (2023). “It’s Just A Joke”: Tracing Portrayals Of Womanhood In Women’s Humor. Unpublished Master’s Thesis. Appalachian State University, Boone, NC.
- Language: English
- Date: 2023
- Keywords
- Women's humor, Women in literature, Marietta Holley, Elaine Dundy, Torrey Peters