Cracking up : black feminist comedy in the twentieth and twenty-first century United States /

Cracking up : black feminist comedy in the twentieth and twenty-first century United States /

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:	Wood, Katelyn Hale, 1975- author.
Imprint:	Iowa City : University of Iowa Press, [2021]
Description:	x, 191 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.
Language:	English
Series:	Studies in theatre history and culture Studies in theatre history and culture.
Subject:	Stand-up comedy -- Social aspects -- United States. Stand-up comedy -- Political aspects -- United States. African American women comedians -- Biography. African American wit and humor -- History and criticism. Feminism -- United States. African American wit and humor. African American women comedians. Feminism. United States. Biographies. Criticism, interpretation, etc.
Format:	Print Book
URL for this record:	http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/12596242

Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:	9781609387723 1609387724 9781609387730
Notes:	Based on the author's dissertation (doctoral)--University of Texas, 2014. Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary:	"Cracking Up archives and analyzes Black feminist stand-up comedy in the United States over the past sixty years. Looking closely at the work of Jackie "Moms" Mabley, Mo'Nique, Wanda Sykes, Sasheer Zamata, Sam Jay, Phoebe Robinson, Jessica Williams, and Michelle Buteau, this book shows how Black feminist comedy and the laughter it ignites are vital components of feminist, queer, and anti-racist protest. Cracking Up frames theatre and live performance as an important platform from which to examine citizenship in the United States, articulate Black feminist political thought, and subvert structures of power. Author Katelyn Hale Wood interprets these artists not as tokens in their white/male dominated field, but as part of a continuous history of Black feminist performance and presence in the United States. Broadly, the book also champions comedic performance and theatre history as imperative contexts for advancing historical studies of race, gender, and sexuality. From the comedy routines popular on Black vaudeville circuits to stand-up on contemporary social media platforms, Cracking Up excavates an overlooked history of Black women who made the art of joke-telling a key part of radical performance and political engagement"--
Other form:	Online version: Wood, Katelyn Hale, 1975- Cracking up Iowa City : UnNiversity of Iowa Press, 2021. 9781609387730

Table of Contents:

Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Laughter in the Archives
Jackie "Moms" Mabley
2. I Love You Bitches Back
Spect-actors and Affective Freedom in I Coulda Been Your Cellmate!
3. The Black Queer Citizenship of Wanda Sykes
4. Contemporary Truth-Tellers
A New Cohort of Black Feminist Comics
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index