Humor, Entertainment, and Popular Culture during World War I

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvi

   PDF

2. Introduction

   1. Introduction

      • Clémentine Tholas-Disset, Karen A. Ritzenhoff

      Pages 1-19

3. Movies to Please? Laughter, Diversion, and Nationhood in Great War Films

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 21-21

      PDF

   2. Alf’s Button (1920): Comedy in the Trenches

      • Lawrence Napper

      Pages 23-40

   3. Body Politics: National Identity, Performance, and Modernity in Maciste Alpino (1916)

      • Giaime Alonge, Francesco Pitassio

      Pages 41-57

   4. Hoaxes, Ballyhoo Stunts, War, and Other Jokes: Humor in the American Marketing of Hollywood War Films during the Great War

      • Fabrice Lyczba

      Pages 59-75

   5. Johanna Enlists (1918): An Elliptic and Comic Portrayal of the Great War in Motion Pictures

      • Clémentine Tholas-Disset

      Pages 77-87

4. A War of Witty Words and Images: Novels, Newspapers, and Illustrations

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 89-89

      PDF

   2. War Memoir as Entertainment: Walter Bloem’s Vormarsch (1916)

      • Jakub Kazecki

      Pages 91-105

   3. Nature and Functions of Humor in Trench Newspapers (1914–1918)

      • Koenroad Du Pont

      Pages 107-121

   4. The Nuanced Comic Perspectives of the Cartoons in Mr. Punch’s History of the Great War

      • Renée Dickason

      Pages 123-134

   5. World War I in Bande Dessinée: La Semaine de Suzette and the Birth of a Breton Heroine at War!

      • Anne Cirella-Urrutia

      Pages 135-150

   6. Marianne in the Trenches: Typology and Iconographic Polysemy of Marianne between 1914 and 1918

      • Laurent Bihl

      Pages 151-166

5. Entertaining on Stage: Pleasurable and Political Live Performances

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 167-167

      PDF

   2. The Range of Laughter: First Person Reports from Entertainers of the Over There Theatre League

      • Felicia Hardison Londré

      Pages 169-179

   3. “You Can’t Help Laughing, Can You?” Humor and Symbolic Empowerment in British Music Hall Song during the Great War

      • John Mullen

      Pages 181-196

   4. J. M. Barrie and World War I

      • Jenna L. Kubly

      Pages 197-208

6. Promoting War Values and Routine, Coping with a Different Social Order

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 209-209

      PDF

   2. Sugary Celebrations and Culinary Activism: Sugar, Cooking, and Entertaining during World War I

      • Amy D. Wells

      Pages 211-223

   3. Chunder Goes Forth: Humor, Advertising, and the Australian Nation in the Bulletin during World War I

      • Robert Crawford

      Pages 225-243

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.

• World War One
• humor
• entertainment
• satire
• music
• war effort
• recreation
• comedy
• Comic
• culture
• First World War
• France
• history
• Hollywood
• Home Front
• humour
• identity
• nation
• national identity
• novel
• stage
• theatre

“This is a thoroughly enjoyable book offering insight and interest for cultural historians of the Great War the world over. Refreshingly, it deals with a number of topics otherwise overlooked in relation to the conflict, and offers contributions from a mixture of new and established academics.” (Pip Gregory, Reviews in History, history.ac.uk, April, 2016)

"Tholas-Disset and Ritzenhoff have produced a volume that revivifies the battle scenes of World War I by filling the trenches with an unexpected sound: laughter. Enjoy this book for its scholarship of popular culture during the Great War, but delight in the amusing and unexpected humor that comes from films, anecdotes, poetry and songs in spite of such obvious sorrow." - Michael Cullinane, Senior Lecturer, US History, Northumbria University, UK

"Gallows humor, patriotic entertainment, and raucous consumerist fun: this collection looks at the Great War through a different lens. It shows what we can learn about the past by taking comedy seriously." - Joanna Bourke, Professor, History, Birkbeck College, University of London, UK

"Editors Tholas-Disset andRitzenhoff, together with their international group of scholars, have beautifully risen to the challenge of 'histoire croisée/entangled history' as applied to the First World War context. By means of a purposely-cultural approach, this book examines the apparent war/laughter antinomy and humor as an antidote to trauma, and in so doing offers a remarkable contribution to the study of the Great War that will significantly complement the work of historians. Put more simply, it is a good read and a centennial must." - Serge Ricard, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, France and editor of A Companion to Theodore Roosevelt

"Humor, Entertainment and Popular Culture during World War I investigates the complex relationship between the entertainment industry, artists and the Great War, and how the experience of warfare or just being at war was often expressed through various forms of humor. The sheer scope is impressive in terms of both the nations and media covered, and each chapter presents an original and entertaining point of entry!" - David Roche, Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès, France and author of Making and Remaking Horror in the 1970s and 2000s, and co-editor of Intimacy in Cinema

Giaime Alonge, University of Turin, Italy Laurent Bihl, Panthéon Sorbonne University, France Anne Cirella-Urrutia, Huston-Tillotson University, USA Claire Conilleau, Université de Cergy-Pontoise, France Robert Crawford, University of Technology, Australia Renee Dickason, University of Brittany, France Koenraad Du Pont, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven/ Brussels Center for Journalism Studies, Belgium Jakub Kazecki, Bates College, USA Jenna L. Kubly, Tufts University, USA Adrian T. Lewis, Leiden University, The Netherlands Felicia Hardison Londré, University of Missouri-Kansas City, USA Fabrice Lyczba, University Paris-Dauphine, France John Mullen, Université Paris Est Créteil, France Lawrence Napper, King's College, UK Francesco Pitassio, University of Udine, Italy Karen Randell, Bedfordshire University, UK Amy Wells, Université de Caen Basse-Normandie, France.

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