The Power of Laughter
Jessie Redmon Fauset and the Racial and Gender Politics of Humor
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21427775 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Sabrina Fuchs Abrams (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 8 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 360-380 |
| Publication date | 2022-09-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Studies in American Humor (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0095-280X • E-ISSN: 2333-9934 |
| Publisher | The Pennsylvania State University Press (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.5325/studamerhumor.8.2.0360 |
| OpenAlex | W4297906210 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
Humor by African American women writers has been largely overlooked and undervalued owing in part to the misguided expectation of feminine, subordinate behavior that precludes the expression of aggression and irreverence associated with humor. This article reappraises Jessie Redmon Fauset’s reputation as a sentimental, bourgeois female writer, looking at how she uses irony and satire to challenge racial and gender stereotypes and become a pioneering female humorist of the Harlem Renaissance. In her essay “The Gift of Laughter” and her best-known novel, Plum Bun (1928), Fauset uses humor as an indirect form of social protest to subvert racial and gender stereotypes of the New Woman and the New Negro Woman and to unsettle bourgeois, sentimental conventions of the marriage plot and the passing plot. Through a reframing of Fauset’s novel in light of recent theories of Black feminist humor, this article helps to restore Fauset’s rightful place among the leading and lasting voices of the Harlem Renaissance
Aggression · Art · Art history · Bourgeoisie · Cognitive reframing · Harlem Renaissance · Insult · Irony · Laughter · Literature · Performance art · Plot (graphics) · Political science · Politics · Power (physics) · Sarcasm · Sociology · American Literature and Humor Studies · Gender Studies · Humor Studies and Applications · Law · Psychology · Race, History, and American Society · Social Psychology
| Citations per year | 1.33 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2023 - 2026 (4) |
| Highly cited | No |