{"product_id":"specters-of-slapstick-and-silent-maggie-hennefeld-9780231179478","title":"Specters of Slapstick and Silent Film Comediennes","description":"\u003cp\u003eWomen explode out of chimneys and melt when sprayed with soda water. Feminist activists play practical jokes to lobby for voting rights, while overworked kitchen maids dismember their limbs to finish their chores on time. In early slapstick films with titles such as \u003ci\u003eSaucy Sue\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003e Mary Jane's Mishap\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003e Jane on Strike\u003c\/i\u003e, and\u003ci\u003e The Consequences of Feminism\u003c\/i\u003e, comediennes exhibit the tensions between joyful laughter and gendered violence. Slapstick comedy often celebrates the exaggeration of make-believe injury. Unlike male clowns, however, these comic actresses use slapstick antics as forms of feminist protest. They spontaneously combust while doing housework, disappear and reappear when sexually assaulted, or transform into men by eating magic seeds--and their absurd metamorphoses evoke the real-life predicaments of female identity in a changing modern world. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eSpecters of Slapstick and Silent Film Comediennes\u003c\/i\u003e reveals the gender politics of comedy and the comedic potentials of feminism through close consideration of hundreds of silent films. As Maggie Hennefeld argues, comedienne catastrophes provide disturbing but suggestive images for comprehending gendered social upheavals in the early twentieth century. At the same time, slapstick comediennes were crucial to the emergence of film language. Women's flexible physicality offered filmmakers blank slates for experimenting with the visual and social potentials of cinema. \u003ci\u003eSpecters of Slapstick and Silent Film Comediennes\u003c\/i\u003e poses major challenges to the foundations of our ideas about slapstick comedy and film history, showing how this combustible genre blows open age-old debates about laughter, society, and gender politics.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Maggie Hennefeld\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0231179472\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780231179478\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Columbia University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 03\/27\/2018\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 384\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.15lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 5.90w x 1.10d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e 11\/01\/2018","brand":"Maggie Hennefeld","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":43913494495487,"sku":"9780231179478","price":32.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/products\/img_294eed3c-ecce-4930-bef4-bf4df2d98f0b.jpg?v=1680620684","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/specters-of-slapstick-and-silent-maggie-hennefeld-9780231179478","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}