Contents Below
1. Note on Cyril Clemens books on Shillaber, Billings, Nasby, and Holley
2. Syllabus to American Humor Course by David E. E. Sloane (1998-2019)
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ButlerIntoCCsHolleybiog.f37.pdf Perspective on Marietta Holley
Cyril Clemens created three biographies of American humorists based on his work collecting information from living sources who knew the writers. He quoted extensively and reproduced varied documents: Josh Billings, B. P. Shillaber, and Petroleum V. Nasby were the three he published. He planned a fourth on Marietta Holley and was collecting documentation for it, but it was never completed. The link above connects to one of the proposed prefaces--by Ellis Parker Butler, author of Pigs is Pigs--that was to lead into his own text. It is a thoughtful contemporary placement of her in the culture of her era and helps explain why she dropped from sight so completely.
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DAVID E. E. SLOANE "American Humor" course taught 1998-2019 at University of New Haven
COURSE SYLLABUS
Course Objectives:[Note: These are general ideals and not (necessarily) measurable]
- Teach students the historical outline of American humor
- Familiarize students with ethical, political and social currents in American Humor
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Course Requirements & Assessment:NOTE: A final portfolio documents all your work in the course (including notes, quizzes, web-sites visited, Discussion threads and responses, joke submissions and responses, and Extended Comments in a 3-ring binder.Examinations: The Portfolio is the Final Examination. Participation: Expected in all modules
Course Description: Extensive readings, discussion, and response to humor readings and involvement in practical humor in jokes and comedy sources discovered independently.
Extended Course Description/Course Format: Fifteen modules requiring reading of sources and posting of major comment (target 300 words), response to at least two other entries (50-100 words@), submission of jokes/comic pieces with discussion, and response to at least one other joke submission.
Required Text(s)/Materials/Supplies: Many texts are available free on-line. See weekly Modules, “To Read” sections. See WWW.HATHITRUST.ORG, GOOGLEBOOKS, ARCHIVE.ORG, J-STOR, and Project Muse.
Course Objectives
1. Teach students outline of American humor as a genre of social comment.
2. Familiarize students with ethical, moral, social, racial, and other components of American humor.
3. Teach students to work with specific authors and works in the genre to identify devices and themes.
Student Learning Outcomes
1. Be able to identify significant works and authors in the genre
2. Be able to differentiate periods and styles of humor
3. Be able to demonstrate specific traits of American humor
4. Be able to research and respond to analysis of humor by others
5. Be able to explain the nature of humor in specific works, long and short
6. Be able to find varied presentation techniques and style of humor outside the course
Course Requirements & Assessment
15 Discussion module essay postings of approximately 300 words
15 X 2 responses to other postings
15 Posting of 15 jokes with explanations and 15+ responses to other postings
Portfolio with dividers
Class attendance (3x course entry/weekly modules)
16 Quizzes T/F Quizzes. You may write a paragraph of explanation on missed questions to retrieve any "lost" points.
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Expectations: Positive, dedicated classroom involvement.
Structured grammatical presentations.
Sensitivity to the sensitive nature of some humor in relation to race, sex, and persona.
Portfolio fully structured and organized in a 3-ring binder.
The University estimates that a student should expect to spend two hours outside of class for each hour they are in a class. (For example, a three-credit course would average six [6] hours of additional work outside of class.)
Missed Work Statement Missed work will be given a zero. If you must miss work, please inform me in advance by email with the explanation of your absence and a proposed date to submit the missed work.
An excused absence (such as a note from Health Services or a healthcare provider) may be required before you can make up missed work. Personal emergencies happen and can be accommodated.
Learning Toolbox
1. Modules close on Sunday at midnight but first postings are due WEDNESDAY EVENING
2. Notes and outside work can be added to your portfolio
3. Loose papers in a folder do not constitute a portfolio.
4. You may send explanations of missed T/F questions to regain the lost points, but you must do so before the end of each module.
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Syllabus:Introduction
1.8.1 Course Information: Introduction
Course Syllabus and related information
Booklist and Resources: review readings to plan your semester!
TO DO: Personal Introductions of Students and Instructor- enter appropriate thread of the threaded discussion
Course Expectations
TO DO: Discussion of Level of Decorum--enter appropriate thread of the threaded discussion
TO DO: QUIZ
1.8.2.1 MODULE 1: American Humor as an Historical Phenomenon
Defining Humor, American Humor, International Humor
Colonial Humor and Satire through 1820, Northeastern Humor, Yankee & Knickerbocker, Southwestern, Western humor, etc.
TO READ: Anthology, pps. 1-76, roughly Morton through Irving)
You should also read the Benjamin Franklin piece "Old Mistresses Apologue." Polly Baker's Speech" and "On Taking an Older Mistress" also show Franklin at his humorous irony on Male Chauvinism--way ahead of his times.
If you want to get "The Ephemerae," that is also good reading and shows Franklin thinking in a neoclassical mode. His political writings are also important in their use of comedy on the use of Hessiion soldiers, commercial relations with Canada, and even in the "Join or Die" cartoon which was by itself a powerful icon representing the uniting of the thirteen colonies.
TO DO: Submit Comment and two responses.
TO DO: Submit Comic item or joke and 1 response
TO DO: QUIZ
1.8.2.2 If you want to read more, you have opportunities everywhere on the internet. For Morton, Chapter XIV, XV, and XVI of Part III of The New English Canaan (available in most large American Literature survey anthologies are much funnier in their scorn of Capt. Shrimp (Capt. John Smith of the Puritans). You could find Phillip Freneau's satire of "The Doctor." Read Lord Timothy Dexter--A Pickle for the Knowing Ones, Poor Richard's Almanac, or Sarah Kemble Knight's "The Private Journal of a Journey from Boston to New York," also available in many American literature anthologies. Hathi Trust, Google, and Wikipedia will also find these resources for you, along with J-STOR and Project Muse.
1.8.3 MODULE 2: Northeastern Humor: Paulding, Cox, Neal, Haliburton, and others: Humor as Cultural Reflector
TO READ: Anthology, pp. 77-144. Find any not in our anthology in our Course Documents, "The Speech of David Wood," "Paulding's "Jonathan Visits the Celestial Empire," Seba Smith's "Jack Downing," Haliburton's "Sam Slick" writings and William Cox's "Steam." Joseph C. Neal's short sketches are very important: "Orson Dabbs, the Hittite" and "Peter Brush, The Great Used Up" are especially important in opening up the urban Northeast as a region. There is also B. P. Shillaber's MRS. PARTINGTON in
Partington Patchwork, and other books.
TO DO: Submit comment for discussion and respond to 2 others
TO DO: Submit Comic item or joke and respond to 1 other
TO DO: Take Quiz
Note: The First Extended Comment is coming up, now would be a good time to pick a topic and discuss it online with the instructor and other students.
1.8.3.1 MODULE 3: Literary/Urban Humor
TO DO: Read in our Anthology, pp. 144-195 (now out of print). I will to my one remaining copy, but I think you may find that Hawthorne's "The Celestial Railroad," Melville's "I and My Chimney," and Poe's story about Jack Tarr make a good start, fleshed out with Donald Grant Mitchell, G. W. Curtiss, and something from O. W. Holmes.
TO DO: Discuss whether or not something is being added to the stock of colonial and federal-era humor we have seen.
Does the urban environment bring about changes in language, imagery, comic targets? Consider going outside and checking more works by one of the authors and bringing information back.
Read Carefully for Quiz **
1.8.4 MODULE 4: Southwestern Humor:
TO READ: Selections in our Anthology 197-246. Also, see The Humor of the Old Southwest, edited by Hennig Cohen and William Dillingham: Thomas Bangs Thorpe, "The Big Bear of Arkansas"**
J. K. Paulding, "The Lion of the West"
G. W. Harris, "Sut Lovingood's Daddy, Acting Horse"**
"Parson John Bullen's Lizards"
"Blown Up with Soda"
"Sicily Burns's Wedding"
"Rare Ripe Garden Seed"
J. J. Hooper, "The Captain Attends a Camp Meeting"**
W. T. Thompson, "The Coon-Hunt; or, A Fency Country"
A. B. Longstreet, "The Horse Swap"**
"The Fight"
H. C. Lewis, "A Tight Race Considerin'"
"Cupping on the Sternum"
TO DO: Submit your comment and responses
You may do additional comments on stories in your "joke" assignment as this week is a "reading" week. Show all the reading you can. Extra credit is assigned for those who read all the above and go beyond to bring us further suggestions.TO DO: The rough-house humor of the Old Southwest has been studied as if it was completely separate. The imagery, subjects, low language, and low characters have been supposed to have "opened up" a whole new potential for American humor. It might be worth commenting, selecting one or another author for deeper insight.
1.8.5 MODULE 5: Twain and the Regions, Northeastern, Western & Southwestern Humor;TO READ: Pps. 1-109, 156-162 in Mark Twain--Tales, Speeches, Essays, and SketchesVisit Artemus Ward in Course Documents, Module 6
TO DO: Submit Discussion comment and two responses. I think a lot of Mark Twain's style comes from Ward.TO DO: Submit joke and response; you may offer something from Twain or another regional writer if you wish.TO DO: Take Quiz.You should read Artemus Ward's letters on various subjects, especially "The Prince of Wales" and "Interviews the Prince Napoleon," if you only skimmed them in the previous modules. Read further in Cohen and Dillingham. Seek other older anthologies of American humor in your local library and read selections as you find them. John Phoenix,a.k.a. the Veritable Squibob, represents the West to many critics in Phoenixiana. Q. K. Philander Doesticks, P. B. (Mortimer Thomson) represents the urban Northeast of the same period-- 1850s--in which Twain began forming his literary personality("persona"). Doesticks: What He Says (1855) anticipates many Twain items in the 1860s.
1.8.5.2 OPTION: Since the internet allows us to diverge, you may choose to read some stories in the Southwestern Tradition, the nineteenth-century feminist tradition ESPECIALLY FANNY FERN or MARIETTA HOLLEY, or a number of other "traditions" and become our specialist in an area. First e-mail Dr. Sloane or pose your area on the threaded discussion.
1.8.6 MODULE 6: Later Nineteenth Century Comedy--Other Readings,
TO READ: Anthology, 246-306Twain: Tales, Speeches, Essays--
"The Man Who Corrupted Hadleyburg (1899)"
"To The Person Sitting in Darkness (1901)";
on to HUCK FINN
Artemus Ward and Marietta Holley selections also appear in "Course Documents." Try M. Quad (Caution: some of it is racist stereotypes) "The Danbury Newsman," Max Adeler
Humor as cultural reflector, Part II
You might also read in Mark Twain's Library of Humor, if you can find a reprint in a library, compiled by Twain and W. D. Howells and reprinted in the 1960s and therefore sometimes available. You will many more humorists there.
TO DO: Submit comment and 2 responses
Submit comic piece or joke and 1 response
Take Quiz
1.8.7 MODULE 7: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Finish through Chapter 24.
TO READ: Huck Finn, Chapters 1-24
TO DO: Submit comments and 2 responses
Submit humor item or other material and 1 response
Take Quiz
1.8.8 MODULE 8: Humor and American Ethics
TO READ: Huck Finn, Chapter 24 to the End
TO DO: Submit your comment to discussion and 2 responses
Submit key joke lines from this or other Twain works and 1 comment.
Take Quiz
1.8.8.1 OPTION: If you would like to substitute A CONNECTICUT YANKEE, INNOCENTS ABROAD, or PUDD'NHEAD WILSON--a short book of about 90 pages for those of you pressed for time--you may do so.
1.8.9.1 MODULE 9: Local Humor in the Twentieth Century:
Regional and Sexual Humor
TO READ: Welsch: Shingling the Fog and Other Plains Lies
Read at least "Rough Weather," Big Men," and "Strange Critters"
Skim the rest for Regional Humor/ Local Jokes
Randolph: Pissing in the Snow, sexual and vulgar humor
Begin reading Schuyler, Black No More
TO DO: Submit Comments and 2 Responses
Submit joke/comic lines and 1 response
Take Quiz
1.8.9.2. OPTION: You may specialize in a region or an ethnic group of your choosing; no prior permission is needed, just get sufficient material and submit notes and bibliographical reference.
1.8.10.1 MODULE 10: Mad, National Lampoon, Spy: Humor Magazines
Humor Magazines, New College Humor, City Humor Magazines
TV/Radio Humor and the Movies.
Sit-Coms, Comedy Shows, Car Talk
Garrison Keillor and the "Prairie Home Companion"
TV Humor
TO READ: Anthology, pps. 309-336; also look for more pieces by Dorothy Parker, James Thurber, Langston Hughes
TO DO: Find a humor magazine, movie, or TV/radio show that is either periodical or ephemeral (a throw-away one-time event) and bring it to the on-line discussion. You may use a historical example like Mad, Life Puck, Judge, etc.--some are on microfilm in college libraries. You may also go to the news-stand and see if there are humor magazines, tabloids, or large humor sections in related magazines. If you do a TV situation comedy, please give us a very brief outline of the plot and full information on date of show, title, if any, and other information. NOTE: There is no quiz at the end of this module; your grade will be based solely on the quality of your submissions.
1.8.10.2 OPTION: Please pick one or two shows and try to see re-runs or even tape one to review two or three times and report on its "style", "content," characterization, Reflection of its period and creators' attitudes.
1.8.11.1 MODULE 11: George Schuyler, Black No More and African American Humor, First Half, TO READ: George Schuyler, Black No More.
TO DO: Submit comment to discussion and 2 responses
Submit joke and 1 response (can you find something another humorist, such as Pryor?)
Take Quiz1.8.12.2 Module 12: Schuyler, Black No More, second half. See also Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man and works by William Melvin Kelley such as A Different Drummer.
1.8.13.1 MODULE 13: "Applied Humor"Humor in the Workplace
Use by corporations to stimulate creative thinking
Humor applications
As outlet for employee frustrations
Humor and Health
Other Applications
TO DO: Read our Anthology, pp. 335-417Either from our readings or from another source, submit an example of "applied humor."
Comment on two other applications.
Provide a story or joke that bears on work or health.
Comment on one other submission.
Complete Quiz and Submit
PLAN AHEAD: Third Extended comment and Final Portfolio. OPTION: A number of books by Dundes, Boskin, Christie Davies and others are loaded with jokes and discussions of them, and more "Joke Books" exist (from the 1500s as "Jest Books" to now)--you are welcome to become an "expert" in one of these and report to us.
1.8.14.1 MODULE 14: Woody Allen and Garrison Keillor:
Side Effects; Annie Hall and Manhattan; Lake Wobegon Days
TO READ: Woody Allen Side Effects. View: Manhattan, Annie Hall, and read in Keillor, Lake Wobegon DaysTO DO: Submit Comments to discussion, respond to 2 othersSubmit comic line, respond to 1 otherSubmit Extended Comment
1.8.15.1 Module 15, is the Final Examination: Contemporary Humor. Bring to the discussion one representative "contemporary" humor source from each of the following media: the internet, TV or radio, movies and popular writing (magazines, newspapers, books) and explain in each case why you think they are worthy of our notice. FINAL PORTFOLIO DUE LAST on-ground class meeting DAY OF CLASSES: Dec. 9. See 2019-2020 Academic Calendar August 26-December 17, 2019
DEES Fall 2019
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Comments (5)
dsloane@newhaven.edu said
at 2:53 pm on Jun 23, 2010
Welcome to the American Humor Studies Association "Wiki" site!
birdj@winthrop.edu said
at 7:30 pm on Jul 9, 2010
Good to be here! Ready to wiki away!
Janice McIntire-Strasburg said
at 10:57 am on Jul 12, 2010
OK, been a bit busy with a grant proposal, but ready to work...should we start putting up primary works? I know there are also some youtube videos that we may be able to put here in this space.
dsloane@newhaven.edu said
at 2:23 pm on May 25, 2011
Hello, Specialists in American Humor:
We hope to make this a site for bibliographies, course syllabi, and various other offerings. Please join the American Humor Studies Association.
Best wishes, Dave Sloane 5/30/11
dsloane@newhaven.edu said
at 2:20 pm on Aug 5, 2019
This is to become a working space this fasll--2019. We will see how it goes.
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