Li'l Abner: A Study in American Satire (Studies in Popular Culture) [Hardcover]

Arthur Asa Berger (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1994 | Series: Studies in Popular Culture

Southwest literary humor and Yiddish humor collided in the ever-popular comic strip "Li'l Abner," From 1936 to 1977, when it ceased publication, this comic strip entertained, annoyed, riled, and amused legions of readers. Li'l Abner, Daisy Mae, Mammy and Pappy Yokum, Moonbeam McSwine, Marryin' Sam, and Sadie Hawkins became pillars in American popular culture, and Dogpatch became a symbol, an emblem, and a community in mainstream U.S.A.

The denizens of Dogpatch were destined for their place outside the frames of comic strips. They were popular subjects on stage and screen and eventually made their way into scholarly studies.

Li'l Abner: A Study in American Satire, the first such assessment, is made available again in this edition which includes a new afterword by the author. Originally published in 1969, it was the first full-length book devoted to a single American comic strip. It has remained a model of how the comics, sometimes snubbed as "culture for the common man," can be given earnest and well deserved analytical attention.

Here in great detail are discussions of the place of "Li'l Abner" in American satire, of Capp's narrative technique, his use of dialogue and grotesquerie, his use of self-caricature, and of the significance of social criticism and the pictorial image.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Southwest literary humor and Yiddish humor collided in the ever-popular comic strip "Lil Abner". From 1936 to 1977 (when it ceased publication) this comic strip entertained, annoyed, riled, and amused legions of readers. Li'l Abner, Daisy Mae, Mammy and Pappy Yokum, Moonbeam McSwine, Marryin' Sam, and Sadie Hawkins became pillars in American popular culture, and Dogpatch became a symbol, an emblem and a community in mainstream U. S. A. Li'l Abner: A Study in American Satire, originally published in 1969, is made available again with a new afterword by the author. It is a model of how the comics (sometimes snubbed as "culture for the common man") can be given earnest and well deserved analytical attention. Here in great detail are discussions of the place of "Lil Abner" in American satire, of Al Capp's narrative technique, his use of dialogue and grotesquery, his use of self-caricature, and of the significance of social criticism and the pictorial image. As a mirror of national values and conflicts, "Lil Abner" had a special place not only in the funny papers but also in the consciousness of America. -- Midwest Book Review

From the Inside Flap

Al Capp's cartoon of Dogpatch's favorite son revealed as satiric culture of the common man --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 205 pages
• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi (September 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0878057129
• ISBN-13: 978-0878057122
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.2 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,114,648 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I was born in Boston and kept moving west as I got educated: western Mass (the University of Mass at Amherst), Iowa (the University of Iowa in Iowa City), Minnesota (The Univ. of Minnesota) in Minneapolis). I landed a job teaching at San Francisco State and have been in the Bay Area since 1965. I've been married for 49 years, but it only seems like 47 or 48 years, to a former philosophy professor. I've kept a journal since 1956 and all my books have come out of the journals. I'm an artist and illustrate my books and books by other writers from time to time. I have two children and four grandchildren. Now, in 2009, I've got five books in various stages of publication:

1. Bali Tourism. Routledge. To be published in March, 2011 (I hope).

2. Japan Tourism: An Ethno-Semiotic Analysis. Published in 2010.

3. The Cultural Theorist's Book of Quotations. Published in 2010.

4. The Objects of Affection: Semiotics and Consumer Culture. 2010.

5. Seeing is Believing: An Introduction to Visual Communication. 4th
edition. To be published in 2011.