The Marx Brothers As Social Critics

Author : Martin A. Gardner
Publisher : McFarland
ISBN 13 : 0786454547
Total Pages : 219 pages
Book Rating : 4.49/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Marx Brothers as Social Critics written by Martin A. Gardner and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2009-10-21 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Marx Brothers' films are packed with slapstick and obvious jokes, gags, puns, pratfalls, and mimicry. But beneath the laughs is a serious and biting condemnation of American culture. This book examines historical events, political practices, economic conditions, manners and customs, literary subjects, and popular entertainment as satirized in the films and considers the ways in which the films were relevant in their era and remain so today.

Author : Martin A. Gardner
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 610 pages
Book Rating : 4.81/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Marx Brothers written by Martin A. Gardner and published by . This book was released on 1980 with total page 610 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Robert E. Weir
Publisher : McFarland
ISBN 13 : 1476648727
Total Pages : 295 pages
Book Rating : 4.29/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Marx Brothers and America written by Robert E. Weir and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2022-08-12 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The ground has shifted from the days in which "serious history" and "boring" went hand in glove. Textbooks and lectures have their place, but less traditional classrooms can be powerfully immersive and insightful. Take the 1929 Marx Brothers film The Cocoanuts and what it teaches about both the Great Depression and early sound films. The Marx Brothers are among the funniest comedy teams of all time. Four of their 13 films are on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 greatest American comedies ever made. For many contemporary viewers, though, "getting" the jokes is not always easy because the humor can be subjective and timebound. This work looks at the American past through the lens of the Marx Brothers' films and other projects. Each of the chapters focuses on a specific film, contextualizing the world at the time and how the Marx Brothers lampooned those subjects. Along the way, the book demonstrates what the Marx Brothers revealed about weighty topics like gambling, gender relations, immigration, medical care, Prohibition, race and war, all leavened with offbeat humor.

Author : Lee Siegel
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300216637
Total Pages : 176 pages
Book Rating : 4.39/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Groucho Marx written by Lee Siegel and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2016-01-28 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Born Julius Marx in 1890, the brilliant comic actor who would later be known as Groucho was the most verbal of the famed comedy team, the Marx Brothers, his broad slapstick portrayals elevated by ingenious wordplay and double entendre. In his spirited biography of this beloved American iconoclast, Lee Siegel views the life of Groucho through the lens of his work on stage, screen, and television. The author uncovers the roots of the performer’s outrageous intellectual acuity and hilarious insolence toward convention and authority in Groucho’s early upbringing and Marx family dynamics. The first critical biography of Groucho Marx to approach his work analytically, this fascinating study draws unique connections between Groucho’s comedy and his life, concentrating primarily on the brothers’ classic films as a means of understanding and appreciating Julius the man. Unlike previous uncritical and mostly reverential biographies, Siegel’s “bio-commentary” makes a distinctive contribution to the field of Groucho studies by attempting to tell the story of his life in terms of his work, and vice versa.

Author : Maaheen Ahmed
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 3319917463
Total Pages : 290 pages
Book Rating : 4.67/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Comics Memory written by Maaheen Ahmed and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-08-01 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite the boom in scholarship in both Comics Studies and Memory Studies, the two fields rarely interact—especially with issues beyond the representation of traumatic and autobiographical memories in comics. With a focus on the roles played by styles and archives—in their physical and metaphorical manifestations—this edited volume offers an original intervention, highlighting several novel ways of thinking about comics and memory as comics memory. Bringing together scholars as well as cultural actors, the contributions combine studies on European and North American comics and offer a representative overview of the main comics genres and forms, including superheroes, Westerns, newspaper comics, diary comics, comics reportage and alternative comics. In considering the many manifestations of memory in comics as well as the functioning and influence of institutions, public and private practices, the book exemplifies new possibilities for understanding the complex entanglements of memory and comics.

Author : Matthew Coniam
Publisher : McFarland
ISBN 13 : 1476618763
Total Pages : 314 pages
Book Rating : 4.60/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Annotated Marx Brothers written by Matthew Coniam and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2015-02-12 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Have you ever watched a Marx Brothers film and wondered what "habeas Irish rose" is? What is the trial of Mary Dugan with sound? What is a college widow? When exactly did Don Ameche invent the telephone? Their films are full of such in-jokes and obscure theatrical, literary and topical references that can baffle modern audiences. In this viewer's guide to the Marx Brothers you will find the answer to such mysteries, along with an exhaustive compilation of background information, obscure trivia and even the occasional busted myth. Each of the Marx Brothers' 13 films is covered by a running commentary, with points in the film discussed as they appear. Each reference is listed by its running time, with time code given for both PAL and NTSC DVD. An introduction for neophytes and a resource for fanatics, this book is a travel guide to the rambling landscape of these remarkable comedies.

Author : Wes D. Gehring
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 0313031878
Total Pages : 281 pages
Book Rating : 4.78/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Marx Brothers written by Wes D. Gehring and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 1987-07-28 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This bio-bibliography was designed to present a combined biographical, critical, and bibliographical portrait of the Marx Brothers. It examines their significance in film comedy in particular, and as popular culture figures in general. The book is divided into five sections, beginning with a biography which explores the public and private sides of the Marx Brothers. The second section is concerned with the influences of the Marx Brothers as icons of anti-establishment comedy, as contributors to developments in American comedy, as early examples of saturation comedy, and as a crucial link between silent films and the talkies. Three original articles, two by Groucho and one by Gummo, comprise part three. A bibliographical essay, which assesses key reference materials and research collections, is followed by two bibliographical checklists. Appendices containing a chronological biography with a timeline, a filmography, and a selected discography complete the work.

Author : Matthew Coniam
Publisher : McFarland
ISBN 13 : 078649705X
Total Pages : 314 pages
Book Rating : 4.58/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Annotated Marx Brothers written by Matthew Coniam and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2015-02-19 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Have you ever watched a Marx Brothers film and wondered what "habeas Irish rose" is? What is the trial of Mary Dugan with sound? What is a college widow? When exactly did Don Ameche invent the telephone? Their films are full of such in-jokes and obscure theatrical, literary and topical references that can baffle modern audiences. In this viewer's guide to the Marx Brothers you will find the answer to such mysteries, along with an exhaustive compilation of background information, obscure trivia and even the occasional busted myth. Each of the Marx Brothers' 13 films is covered by a running commentary, with points in the film discussed as they appear. Each reference is listed by its running time, with time code given for both PAL and NTSC DVD. An introduction for neophytes and a resource for fanatics, this book is a travel guide to the rambling landscape of these remarkable comedies.

Author : J. Hoberman
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1839022264
Total Pages : 105 pages
Book Rating : 4.65/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Duck Soup written by J. Hoberman and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-10-07 with total page 105 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Marx Brothers are universally considered to be classic Hollywood's preeminent comedy team and Duck Soup is generally regarded as their quintessential film. A topical satire of dictatorship and government in general, the movie was a critical failure and box-office let-down on its initial release in 1933. J. Hoberman's study of the film traces its reputation history, from the initial disappointment of its release, to its rise to cult status in the 1960s when the Marx's anarchic, anti-establishment humor seemed again timely. Hoberman places Duck Soup, alongside analogous comedies-Dr. Strangelove (1964), the Beatles films, Morgan! (1966), The President's Analyst (1967) and The Producers (1968). It attained canonical stature as a touchstone for Woody Allen and would be recognized by the Library of Congress in the 1990s. Hoberman's analysis provides a historical and political context as well as an in-depth production history, drawing on primary sources and emphasizing director McCarey's prior work along with the Marx Brothers as well as the situation at Paramount, a substantial synopsis, and an account of the movie's initial reception, concluding with its subsequent elevation to comic masterpiece.

Author : Gianmario Borio
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1000619125
Total Pages : 304 pages
Book Rating : 4.26/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Mediations of Music written by Gianmario Borio and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-08-17 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Adorno believed that a circular relationship was established between immediacy and mediation. Should we now say that this model with its clear Hegelian influence is outdated? Or does it need some theoretical integration? This volume addresses these questions by covering the performance of music, its technological reproduction and its modes of communication – in particular, pedagogy and dissemination through the media. Each of the book’s four parts deal with different aspects of the mediation process. The contributing authors outline the problematic moments in Adorno’s reasoning but also highlight its potential. In many chapters the pole of immediacy is explicitly brought into play, its different manifestations often proving to be fundamental for the understanding of mediation processes. The prime reference sources are Adorno’s Current of Music, Towards a Theory of Musical Reproduction and Composing for the Films. Critical readings of these texts are supplemented by reflections on performance studies, media theories, sociology of listening, post-structuralism and other contiguous research fields.