Slapstick Modernism

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Solomon
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Punk Rock ◽  
Experimental Film ◽  
Literary Modernism ◽  
Late Modernism ◽  
World War ◽  
Postwar Literature ◽  
Charlie Chaplin ◽  
The Face ◽  
Early Century

Slapstick comedy landed like a pie in the face of twentieth-century culture. Pratfalls and nyuk-nyuks percolated alongside literary modernism throughout the 1920s and 1930s before slapstick found explosive expression in postwar literature, experimental film, and popular music. This book charts the origins and evolution of what it calls “slapstick modernism”—a merging of artistic experimentation with the socially disruptive lunacy made by the likes of Charlie Chaplin. Romping through texts, films, and theory, the book embarks on a harum-scarum intellectual odyssey from high modernism to the late modernism of the Beats and Burroughs before a head-on crash into the raw power of punk rock. Throughout, the book shows the links between the experimental writers and silent screen performers of the early century, and explores the potent cultural undertaking that drew inspiration from anarchical comedy after World War II.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lara Vetter
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Historical Fiction ◽  
Epic Poetry ◽  
Global Politics ◽  
Traumatic Experience ◽  
Late Modernism ◽  
World War ◽  
The Face ◽  
Entire Career

The introduction describes H.D.’s traumatic experience of World War II and its aftermath, documenting her heightened interest in global politics from the late 1930s to the late 1940s, as well as her abandonment of a lifelong pacifist stance in the face of rising Nazism. Taking into account the scope of her entire career, the Introduction suggests a shift from static to more dynamic modes of writing, culminating in the historical fiction and epic poetry that dominate the postwar years. It contextualizes her work within the context of scholarship on late modernism, including other work by women of the period on gender and imperialism, and concludes with a summary of the book’s chapters.

The Argentine Proposal for Non-belligerency, April 1940

1969 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 571-604 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph S. Tulchin
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
The United States ◽  
Western Hemisphere ◽  
World War ◽  
Blue Book ◽  
Black Sheep ◽  
Argentine Republic ◽  
The Face ◽  
General Elections

Argentine neutrality during World War II with its suspicious leanings toward fascism has become a cliché in inter-American relations. As far as the United States was concerned at that time, the Argentine Republic was the black sheep of the hemispheric community, the only nation that failed to cooperate wholeheartedly in the crusade against the Axis. The famous State Department “Blue Book,” so conveniently published prior to the Argentine general elections of 1946, spelled out the aid and comfort the Nazis had derived from Argentina's neutrality. By only the narrowest margin did Argentina avoid being drummed out of the hemispheric organization and barred from membership in the new United Nations.It seems strange, therefore, to recall that it was the Argentine government that first suggested, in the spring of 1940, that the nations of the Western Hemisphere discard the posture of traditional neutrality in the face of the spreading conflagration in Europe, on the grounds that it was anachronistic and did not protect their interests.

“In a Strange Country”

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucas E. Morel
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Class Conflict ◽  
Black American ◽  
World War ◽  
White American ◽  
Full Participation ◽  
American Citizenship ◽  
The Face ◽  
Racially Mixed

Lucas Morel’s “‘In a Strange Country’: The Challenge of American Inclusion” interprets Ellison’s 1944 short story as a civics lesson for a republic struggling with the legacy of race. The story follows a black Merchant Marine, Mr. Parker, during World War II as he recovers from a mugging by white American servicemen while on shore leave in Wales. Ellison presents a lesson of civic inclusion by showcasing a “black Yank” being rescued by Welshmen. Parker witnesses how his Welsh hosts transcend class conflict through a common devotion to music, which he likened to the racially mixed “jam sessions” back in America. Herein Ellison articulates the obstacles and pathways to black American citizenship—a reminder that “the land of the free” requires one not only to be “brave” in the face of majority tyranny, but also good-humored, self-disciplined, and hopeful as one seeks full participation in the American regime.

Florence Jaffray Harriman

2019 ◽  
pp. 54-77
Author(s):  
Philip Nash
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
York City ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
World War ◽  
The Face ◽  
Party Activist ◽  
Franklin Roosevelt

This chapter looks at the tenure of Florence Jaffray Harriman, minister to Norway (1937–1941). Harriman was a prominent New York City socialite and Democratic Party activist. President Franklin Roosevelt agreed to send the sixty-six-year-old Harriman to Norway because it was a small, neutral country unlikely to become involved in a European war. When World War II broke out in 1939, Harriman was caught in the midst of it. She performed admirably in the episode involving the City of Flint, a US merchant vessel captured by the Germans, and even more so when the Nazis invaded Norway in April 1940. Harriman risked her life trying to keep up with the fleeing Norwegian leadership, which was being pursued by German forces. Her performance in the face of such danger earned her widespread praise, further strengthening the case for female ambassadors.

Summary and Appraisal

1974 ◽  
Vol 68 ◽  
pp. 4-8
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Capital Flows ◽  
National Level ◽  
Balance Of Payments ◽  
World War ◽  
The World ◽  
The Face ◽  
Real Value ◽  
Reconstruction Period ◽  
The International Monetary Fund

The managing director of the International Monetary Fund said recently that the world is facing ‘the most difficult combination of economic policy decisions since the reconstruction period following World War II’. It is unfortunate that action, so far, in the face of mounting inflation and balance of payments difficulties, has been at a national level rather than on the international level which the situation requires. In particular, there is still an urgent need to make concrete arrangements for dealing with the capital flows resulting from the rise in oil prices, and to offset the deflationary impact of the latter, while, unless aid is increased substantially, the plight of some developing countries will become increasingly desperate as the real value of existing aid flows is rapidly eroded by inflation, and as their oil bills fall due for payment. Nevertheless the restoration of oil supplies combined with the delay between the raising of prices and actual payments at the new rates seems to have induced an unwarranted mood of euphoria in the consuming countries in the first few months of this year.

‘Operation Pied Piper’: A Psychoanalytic Narrative of Authority in a Time of War

2012 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-52
Author(s):  
Lisa Farley
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Social Worker ◽  
Sigmund Freud ◽  
World War ◽  
Mass Migration ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Mind ◽  
British Children

The evacuation of British children during World War II is read alongside the legend of the ‘Pied Piper’ after which the mass migration was officially named. While virtually every British account of World War II makes mention of the evacuation, most are silent on the question of its ominous title: ‘Operation Pied Piper’. This paper traces the legend's key theme – on influencing and being influenced – as it surfaces in the writing of one child analyst and one social worker charged with the responsibility of leading a family of five hostels for British youth. At a time when Hitler's deadly regime reached unprecedented heights across the Channel, the legend of the ‘Pied Piper’ becomes a highly suggestive metaphor for thinking about D. W. Winnicott and Clare Britton's writing on what authority could mean in the face of leadership gone terribly wrong. Quite another, profoundly intimate loss of leadership haunts their words as well: Sigmund Freud, in exile from Hitler's Europe and leader of the psychoanalytic movement, died in London just weeks after the first wave of Blitz evacuations. It is in this context that Winnicott and Britton articulated a theory of authority that could address the losses of history without at the same time demanding the loss of the mind.

The Reception of American Cinema in Japan

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hiroshi Kitamura ◽  
Keiko Sasagawa
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Motion Picture ◽  
The Internet ◽  
World War ◽  
Popular Entertainment ◽  
American Cinema ◽  
American Films ◽  
The Face ◽  
Central Motion ◽  
Alternative Sources

Since the 1890s, Japanese movie-goers have engaged American cinema in a wide consumer marketplace shaped by intense media competition. Early fandom grew around educated urban audiences, who avidly patronized action-packed serials and Universal’s freshly imported films in the 1910s. During the 1920s and 1930s, U.S. cinema continued to attract metropolitan consumers but struggled in the face of Japan’s soaring narrative output. In the years following World War II, movie-goers encountered American films in big cities as well as provincial communities through the Occupation-backed Central Motion Picture Exchange. After the Occupation, U.S. film consumption began to slow down in theaters because of Japanese cinematic competition, but the sites of reception extended into television. The momentum of American cinema revived on the big screen with the rise of the blockbuster, though the years after the 1970s witnessed an intense segmentation of consumer taste. While U.S. cinema culture has become widely available via television, amusement parks, consumer merchandise, and the Internet, the contemporary era has seen renewed challenges mounted by domestic productions and alternative sources of popular entertainment.

Part I History, Ch.4 The Indian Founding: a comparative perspective

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lerner Hanna
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
The State ◽  
Comparative Perspective ◽  
World War ◽  
Linguistic Identity ◽  
Indian Constitution ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Constituent Assembly ◽  
Political Unity ◽  
The Face

This chapter examines the making of the Indian Constitution from a comparative perspective, with particular emphasis on some of the significant and innovative aspects of the drafting process. After discussing constitution drafting in the post-colonial/post-World War II period, it considers the debate in the Indian Constituent Assembly over what it means to be an Indian and how the Constitution should facilitate political unity in the face of immense cultural, religious, and national diversity. It then explores some of the innovative constitutional strategies developed by the Indian framers to reconcile the deep disagreements among the Indian public regarding the religious, national, and linguistic identity of the State with the principles of democracy. These strategies include constitutional incrementalism, the deferral of controversial decisions, ambiguity, and non-justiciability.

Blitz

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beryl Pong
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Creative Expression ◽  
Late Modernism ◽  
World War

The Blitz during World War II both curtailed and provoked creative expression. Key figures of the modernist movement re-evaluated the politics underlying their aesthetics at this time. Others sought to portray the experience through forms and styles that reflected the sense of discontinuity and fragmentariness of war, or that critiqued state rhetoric and governmental propaganda. Literary critics have, variously, considered Blitz writing as a partial continuation of modernism’s tenets, or as a watershed event constitutive of late modernism and modernism’s end.

War Changes

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerald Horne
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Jim Crow ◽  
World War ◽  
The Gaze ◽  
Espionage Act ◽  
External Threat ◽  
The Face ◽  
Racial Progress ◽  
The U.S

This chapter discusses how the U.S. entry into World War II marked a watershed for both the Negro press generally and the Associated Negro Press (ANP) specifically. The “Double V” campaign among African Americans targeting fascism abroad and Jim Crow at home was a simple continuation and escalation of ANP prewar policy. Despite the racial progress propelled by the antifascist war, there were contrary disquieting notes that did not escape the gaze of Claude Barnett. The Negro press could hardly ignore the ambivalence, if not outright support, within their constituency for Tokyo. This factor helped to further propel black militancy at a moment when Washington was demanding stolid acquiescence in the face of the external threat. This widespread sentiment had led FBI leader J. Edgar Hoover to demand Espionage Act indictments of certain Negro papers.

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