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.

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.

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 History of 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. Silencing Laughter: Pioneering Director Lois Weber and The Uncanny Gaze in Silent Film; Karen A. Ritzenhoff