Product Description:  Covering the entire body of Mark Twain's fiction, Clark Griffith in Achilles and the Tortoise answers two questions: How did Mark Twain write? And why is he funny? Griffith defines and demonstrates Mark Twain's poetics and, in doing so, reveals Twain's ability to create and sustain human laughter...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: Art Of James Thurber, The, by Tobias, Richard C.

Surveys Twain's achievements in the many modes and genres he assayed, examining new material and approaches and emphasizing the brilliance of Twain's shorter works

Surveys Twain's achievements in the many modes and genres he assayed, examining new material and approaches and emphasizing the brilliance of Twain's shorter works

Product Description: The Cambridge Companion to Mark Twain offers new and thought-provoking essays on an author of enduring preeminence in the American canon. Accessible enough to interest both experienced specialists and students new to Twain criticism, the essays examine Twain from a wide variety of critical perspectives, and include timely reflections by major critics on the hotly debated dynamics of race and slavery perceptible throughout his writing...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: Literary criticism of Washington Irving's comedic writings.

Product Description: The idea for this study came to me in the course of my reading of innova­ tive US-American! fiction of the last three decades. I observed that much of it is cast in the comic mode - or, more precisely, that there seems to be in contemporary fiction an affinity between 'innovation' and 'the comic' and that this affinity, furthermore, appears to be characteristic of postmo­ dernism...read more

Product Description: Elaine Safer's critically acclaimed work analyzes how 20th century epic writers make ironic use of traditional themes and patterns to develop a new genre, the American comic epic novel. Illustrating practical criticism at its best, the book closely scrutinizes six modern comic novels from John Barth, Thomas Pynchon, William Gaddis , and Ken Kesey...read more

Essays offer varying interpretations of eight of Twain's stories and discuss his writing style

Forty-four litterateurs comment upon Twain's humor, narrative style, and social concerns

Product Description: "Many persons have such a horror of being taken in," wrote P. T. Barnum, "that they believe themselves to be a sham and are continually humbugging themselves." Mark Twain enjoyed trading on that horror, as the many confidence men, assumed identities, and disguised characters in his fiction attest...read more

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Product Description: Walter Blair, this book claims, was the literary scholar who, almost single-handedly, gave the study of American humour significance in the academic world. By categorizing the writings of American literary humorists into such diverse styles as the Old Southwest, Local Colour and Literary Comedian humour - each having serious social import - Blair abolished the notion that they were all practicing the same kind of intellectual irreverence...read more

Product Description: In 1985 Time magazine ran on its cover Garrison Keillor's face superimposed across the fictional town of Lake Wobegon, Minnesota, taking the publication of Keillor's book of the same name as an occasion to raise some hoopla over this "radio bard" (he was then host of the highly acclaimed "A Prairie Home Companion" variety show) and humorist nonpareil...read more

Combining a career in live radio performances and equally lively short story writing for the New Yorker, Garrison Keillor has continually charmed fans and readers with his homespun wit and warmth. While acknowledging his career highlights, this full-length critical study supports Keillor's own view of himself as writer rather than performer, by examining his literary accomplishments and giving serious analysis of his fictional works. In order to understand his tremendous popular appeal, Songer situates Keillor within the rich literary heritage associated with American humorists such as Mark Twain, James Thurber, and Will Rogers. This volume treats each collection of stories as a cohesive literary entity, from the early works Happy to be Here and Lake Wobegon Days, whose familiar characters concerned themselves with social pressures and teenage angst, to The Book of Guys, which wryly examines the pitfalls of the modern male experience. In analyzing Keillor's most recent work, the novel Wobegon Boy, Songer expertly explores Keillor's humorous handling of real life lessons to be learned from the small town legacy.This full-length critical study gives readers a close-up view of Garrison Keillor as he reinvents himself from a shy, small town Minnesota native son, to a successful New York writer who is internationally recognized as the voice of everyman. The well documented biographical and literary heritage chapters familiarize readers with the myriad of literary, social, religious and moral influences that would become thematic materials for Keillor's fiction writing. Each chapter in this Critical Companion examines closely the character development, plot structure, and thematic concerns that tie together each of Keillor's major works and short story collections. Literature students and teachers alike will also find very useful the extensive bibliography with a complete list of all of Keillor's writings as well as reviews, criticism, and further biographical information about this delightful writer.

Product Description: Celebrates the accomplishments of YA authors acclaimed for producing high-quality comedies, who have not yet been treated in a book-length bio-critical study. Simultaneously, it reminds readers that no matter how funny an author of fiction may be, if he shows off his wit in ways that fail to play a natural role in advancing his narrative, he is not writing good fiction...read more

Product Description: 1961 Yale University Press. VG/A. Hardcover with tattered dj (chips, shelfwear, clipt). Book itself is not harmed.Old price ffep. No text marks. Private library.

A critical evaluation and interpretation of the recurring themes in the works of the 20th century humorist

Product Description: John Barth is an amazingly versatile nov­elist who has attempted every imaginable fictional genre from word games to a tale told by a computer. Jac Tharpe’s brilliant analysis is the first and only comprehen­sive study to date to attempt to chart Barth’s philosophical, comic, and stylistic development...read more

Product Description: The comedy in John Updike’s most important works - The Centaur; Rabbit, Run; Rabbit Redux; Rabbit Is Rich; Rabbit at Rest; and Rabbit Remembered - defines a comic world and its morality. Although critics have failed to recognize the extent and the importance of Updike’s comedy, his serious fiction does contain a good deal of farce, burlesque, and irony that, far from being peripheral or mere comic relief, depicts the absurd and contradictory nature of life...read more

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