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Introduction
The 2024 Granfalloon bookshelf features Kurt Vonnegut's Jailbird (1979), considered to be his "Watergate novel." Through the work's protagonist, Walter F. Starbuck, Vonnegut discusses the history of the American labor movement, corporate America, McCarthyism, Richard Nixon, and Watergate. Jailbird is Vonnegut's most direct engagement with political satire, though Cat's Cradle and "Harrison Bergeron" work with this mode as well.
According to Emmett Stinson, "satire is a mode, rather than a genre; it attacks historically specific targets who are real; it is an intentional and purposeful literary form; its targets deserve ridicule on the basis of their behavior; and it is both humorous and critical by its nature." For as long as governments and politics have existed, so too has political satire. From Greek and Roman traditions to the Victorian Era and into the Yale and Chicago School of Satire Critics, there is a long and storied tradition of the satirical mode in literature.
This page contextualizes political satire through three sections:
- A critical introduction to (political) satire featuring bibliographies, syllabi, scholarly and academic books
- Books on political humor with a focus on political comedy in our contemporary moment
- Examples of political satire in literature along with texts that fictionalized political scandals, like Jailbird.
Source: Stinson, E. (2019, August 28). Satire. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature. https://oxfordre.com/literature/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190201098.001.0001/acrefore-9780190201098-e-1091.
A Critical Introduction to (Political) Satire
In this box, you will find syllabi, bibliographies, scholarly articles, and books on (political) satire, Jailbird, and more.
Syllabi
- IDH 2952: (Un)Common Arts: How Political Satire Becomes Political Reality (Dr. Amy Martinelli, University of Florida)
- GESM 120g: Just Joking? Ancient Satire and its Modern Reception (Dr. Hannah Mason, USC Dornsife)
- CLA 102.001: Comedy and Satire (Dr. Achim Kopp, Mercer University)
- ENGL 224: Satire (Prof. Aaron Hanlon, Georgetown University)
Bibliographies
- Political Humor and Its EffectsBaumgartner, Jody C. (2022). Political Humor and Its Effects. obo in Political Science. doi: 10.1093/obo/9780199756223-0350
- Horace's SatiresFreudenburg, Kirk , & Janssen, Niek (2017). Horace's Satires. obo in Classics. doi: 10.1093/obo/9780195389661-0286
- Verse Satire from the Renaissance to the Romantic PeriodBucknell, Clare (2017). Verse Satire from the Renaissance to the Romantic Period. obo in British and Irish Literature. doi: 10.1093/obo/9780199846719-0123
- Satire (Victorian Literature)O’Cinneide, Muireann (2013). Satire. obo in Victorian Literature. doi: 10.1093/obo/9780199799558-0111
- Comedic NewsFox, Julia , & Steinberg, Edo (2017). Comedic News. obo in Communication. doi: 10.1093/obo/9780199756841-0194
Scholarly Articles
- Kurt Vonnegut’s “Jailbird”: Recent American History and the Failure of the American DreamFreese, P. (1999). Kurt Vonnegut’s “Jailbird”: Recent American History and the Failure of the American Dream. Amerikastudien / American Studies, 44(1), 137–165. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41157440
- What’s so Funny about Richard Nixon? Vonnegut’s “Jailbird” and the Limits of ComedyKaufman, W. (2007). What’s so Funny about Richard Nixon? Vonnegut’s “Jailbird” and the Limits of Comedy. Journal of American Studies, 41(3), 623–639. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27558051
- Vonnegut’s Humor and the Limits of HopeMay, J. R. (1972). Vonnegut’s Humor and the Limits of Hope. Twentieth Century Literature, 18(1), 25–36. https://doi.org/10.2307/440692
- Humor and Satire, PoliticalYoung, Dannagal Goldthwaite. “Humor and Satire, Political.” In The International Encyclopedia of Political Communication. Edited by Gianpietro Mazzoleni, 487–494. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2016.
- At Odds: Laughing and Thinking? The Appreciation, Processing, and Persuasiveness of Political SatireMark Boukes, Hajo G. Boomgaarden, Marjolein Moorman, Claes H. de Vreese, At Odds: Laughing and Thinking? The Appreciation, Processing, and Persuasiveness of Political Satire, Journal of Communication, Volume 65, Issue 5, October 2015, Pages 721–744, https://doi.org/10.1111/jcom.12173
- Black Women’s Satire as (Black) Postmodern Performance.Finley, J. (2016). Black Women’s Satire as (Black) Postmodern Performance. Studies in American Humor, 2(2), 236–265. https://doi.org/10.5325/studamerhumor.2.2.0236
- Polls and Elections: Editorial Cartoons 2.0: The Effects of Digital Political Satire on Presidential Candidate EvaluationsBaumgartner, J.C. (2008), Polls and Elections: Editorial Cartoons 2.0: The Effects of Digital Political Satire on Presidential Candidate Evaluations. Presidential Studies Quarterly, 38: 735-758. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-5705.2008.02675.x
- Satire, Punch Lines, and the Nightly News: Untangling Media Effects on Political ParticipationHoffman, L. H., & Young, D. G. (2011). Satire, Punch Lines, and the Nightly News: Untangling Media Effects on Political Participation. Communication Research Reports, 28(2), 159–168. https://doi.org/10.1080/08824096.2011.565278
News Parody and Political Satire Across the Globe by ISBN: 9780415692939Publication Date: 2012-08-15In recent years, the US fake news program The Daily Show with Jon Stewart has become a surprisingly important source of information, conversation, and commentary about public affairs. Perhaps more surprisingly, so-called 'fake news' is now a truly global phenomenon, with various forms of news parody and political satire programming appearing throughout the world. This collection of innovative chapters takes a close and critical look at global news parody from a wide range of countries including the USA and the UK, Italy and France, Hungary and Romania, Israel and Palestine, Iran and India, Australia, Germany, and Denmark. Traversing a range of national cultures, political systems, and programming forms, News Parody and Political Satire Across the Globe offers insight into the central and perhaps controversial role that news parody has come to play in the world, and explores the multiple forces that enable and constrain its performance.
Contemporary Political Satire: Narrative strategies in the post-modern context by ISBN: 0819163198Publication Date: 1987-10-01While satire involves at least implied norms against which a target can be exposed to ridicule, post-modernism connotes an absence of any such normative basis. The focus of this study is the manner in which contemporary authors have attempted to avoid or accommodate the contradictions involved in attempting satire in the post-modern context.
The Offensive Art: Political satire and its censorship around the world from Beerbohm to Borat by ISBN: 9780313356001Publication Date: 2008-11-30The Offensive Art is an arch and sometimes caustic look at the art of political satire as practiced in democratic, monarchical, and authoritarian societies around the world over the past century-together with the efforts by governmental, religious, and corporate authorities to suppress it by censorship, intimidation, policy, and fatwa. The multicultural and multimedia breadth and historical depth of Freedman's comparative approach frames his novel assessment of the role of political satire in today's post-9/11 world, and in particular the cross-cultural controversies it generates, such as the global protests against the Jyllands-Posten cartoons. In a tongue-in-cheek style peppered with the world's best one-liners from the last century, The Offensive Art recounts the acrimonious and often perilous cat-and-mouse games between political satirists and their censors and inhibitors through the last century.
Satire by ISBN: 9781134106332Publication Date: 2017-12-02What is satire? How can we define it? Is it a weapon for radical change or fundamentally conservative? Is satire funny or cruel? Does it always need a target or victim? Combining thematic, theoretical and historical approaches, John T. Gilmore introduces and investigates the tradition of satire from classical models through to the present day. In a lucid and engaging style, Gilmore explores: the moral politics of satire whether satire is universal, historically or geographically limited how satire translates across genres and media the boundaries of free speech and legitimacy. Using examples from ancient Egypt to Charlie Hebdo, from European traditions of formal verse satire to imaginary voyages and alternative universes, newspaper cartoons and YouTube clips, from the Caribbean to China, this comprehensive volume should be of interest to students and scholars of literature, media and cultural studies as well as politics and philosophy.
Satire: A Critical Reintroduction by ISBN: 0813108292Publication Date: 1994-02-24Here is the ideal introduction to satire for the student and, for the experienced scholar, an occasion to reconsider the uses, problems, and pleasures of satire in light of contemporary theory. Satire is a staple of the literary classroom. Dustin Griffin moves away from the prevailing moral-didactic approach established thirty some years ago to a more open view and reintegrates the Menippean tradition with the tradition of formal verse satire. Exploring texts from Aristophanes to the moderns, with special emphasis on the eighteenth century, Griffin uses a dozen figures--Horace, Juvenal, Persius, Lucian, More, Rabelais, Donne, Dryden, Pope, Swift, Blake, and Byron--as primary examples. Because satire often operates as a mode or procedure rather than as a genre, Griffin offers not a comprehensive theory but a set of critical perspectives. Some of his topics are traditional in satire criticism: the role of satire as moralist, the nature of satiric rhetoric, the impact of satire on the political order. Others are new: the problems of satire and closure, the pleasure it affords readers and writers, and the socioeconomic status of the satirist.
The Power of Satire by ISBN: 9789027202291Publication Date: 2015-10-22Satire is clearly one of today's most controversial socio-cultural topics. In this edited volume, The Power of Satire, it is studied for the first time as a dynamic, discursive mode of performance with the power of crossing and contesting cultural boundaries. The collected essays reflect the fundamental shift from literary satire or straightforward literary rhetoric with a relatively limited societal impact, to satire's multi-mediality in the transnational public space where it can cause intercultural clashes and negotiations on a large scale. An appropriate set of heuristic themes - space, target, rhetoric, media, time - serves as the analytical framework for the investigations and determines the organization of the book as a whole. The contributions, written by an international group of experts with diverse disciplinary backgrounds, manifest academic standards with a balance between theoretical analyses and evaluations on the one hand, and in-depth case studies on the other.
Satire As the Comic Public Sphere: Postmodern "truthiness" and civic engagement by ISBN: 9780271089867Publication Date: 2021-04-19Stephen Colbert, Samantha Bee, John Oliver, and Jimmy Kimmel--these comedians are household names whose satirical takes on politics, the news, and current events receive some of the highest ratings on television. In this book, James E. Caron examines these and other satirists through the lenses of humor studies, cultural theory, and rhetorical and social philosophy, arriving at a new definition of the comic art form. Tracing the history of modern satire from its roots in the Enlightenment values of rational debate, evidence, facts, accountability, and transparency, Caron identifies a new genre: "truthiness satire." Using case studies of bits, parodies, and routines, Caron reveals a remarkable process: when evidence-based news reporting collides with a discursive space asserting alternative facts, the satiric laughter that erupts can move the audience toward reflection and possibly even action as the body politic in the public sphere. With rigor, humor, and insight, Caron shows that truthiness satire pushes back against fake news and biased reporting and that the satirist today is at heart a citizen, albeit a seemingly silly one.
Speculative Satire in Contemporary Literature and Film: Rant against the regime by ISBN: 9781000289831Publication Date: 2020-12-27Since 1980, when neoliberal and neoconservative forces began their hostile takeover of western culture, a new type of political satire has emerged that works to unmask and deter those toxic doctrines. Literary and cultural critic Kirk Combe calls this new form of satire the Rant. The Rant is grim, highly imaginative, and complex in its blending of genres. It mixes facets of satire, science fiction, and monster tale to produce widely consumed spectacles--major studio movies, popular television/streaming series, bestselling novels--designed to disturb and to provoke. The Rant targets what Combe calls the Regime. Simply put, the Regime is the sum of the dangerous social, economic, and political orthodoxies spurred on by neoliberal and neoconservative polity. Such practices include free-market capitalism, corporatism, militarism, religiosity, imperialism, racism, patriarchy, and so on. In the Rant, then, we have a unique and wholly contemporary genre of political expression and protest: speculative satire.
Is Satire Saving Our Nation? Mockery and American politics by ISBN: 9781137427977Publication Date: 2014-10-30The book studies the intersections between satirical comedy and national politics in order to show that one of the strongest supports for our democracy today comes from those of us who are seriously joking. This book shows how we got to this place and why satire may be the only way we can save our democracy and strengthen our nation.
Satire and Dissent: Interventions in contemporary political debate by ISBN: 9780253355881Publication Date: 2011-02-16In an age when Jon Stewart frequently tops lists of most-trusted newscasters, the films of Michael Moore become a dominant topic of political campaign analysis, and activists adopt ironic, fake personas to attract attention? The satiric register has attained renewed and urgent prominence in political discourse. Amber Day focuses on the parodist news show, the satiric documentary, and ironic activism to examine the techniques of performance across media, highlighting their shared objective of bypassing standard media outlets and the highly choreographed nature of current political debate.
A Companion to Satire: Ancient and Modern by ISBN: 9781405119559Publication Date: 2006-12-22This collection of twenty-nine original essays surveys satire from its emergence in Western literature to the present. The Companion is extraordinary in its historical scope, tracking satire from its first appearances in the prophetic books of the Old Testament through the Renaissance and the English tradition in satire to Michael Moore's satirical movie Fahrenheit 9/11. While many essays explore literary developments in satire from an historical view, other essays reflect directly on topics such as irony and satire, modes of satirical mockery, the mock-biblical, and the character sketch.
Encyclopedia of Satirical Literature by ISBN: 0874368561Publication Date: 1996-12-01ABC-CLIO's Encyclopedia of Satirical Literature brings together commentary on some of the best and most influential satirical works from throughout history and around the world. Organized alphabetically, it lists key works and characters, authors, pertinent terms, styles, and literary periods.
The Literature of Satire by ISBN: 0521834600Publication Date: 2004-02-12The Literature of Satire is an accessible but sophisticated and wide-ranging study of satire from the classics to the present in plays, novels and the press as well as in verse. In it Charles Knight analyses the rhetorical problems created by satire's complex relations to its community, and examines how it exploits the genres it borrows. He argues that satire derives from an awareness of the differences between appearance, ideas and discourse. Knight provides illuminating readings of such satirists familiar and unfamiliar as Horace, Lucian, Jonson, Molière, Swift, Pope, Byron, Flaubert, Ostrovsky, Kundera, and Rushdie. This broad-ranging examination sheds light on the nature and functions of satire as a mode of writing, as well as on theoretical approaches to it.
Theorizing Satire by ISBN: 0312123027Publication Date: 1995-01-11In its eleven essays, Theorizing Satire reexplores old issues from new perspectives and opens up new dimensions of satire for critical analysis. Adapting to its object of study, this eclectic collection brings to bear upon classical, British, continental, and American satires the insights of New Criticism, philology, rhetorical analysis, anthropology, genre theory, semiotics, deconstruction, cultural criticism, and new historicism. The writers seek useful generalizations about satire, while at the same time offering close readings of individual authors working in a variety of cultural and temporal settings.
African American Satire: The sacredly profane novel by ISBN: 0826213251Publication Date: 2001-07-30In African American Satire, Darryl Dickson-Carr provides the first book-length study of African American satire and the vital role it has played. Beginning with the tradition of folk humor that originated in West Africa and was forcibly transplanted to the Americas through chattel slavery, Dickson-Carr focuses in each chapter on a particular period of the twentieth century in which the African American satirical novel flourished. He analyzes the historical contexts surrounding African American literature and culture within discrete crucial movements, starting with the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and ending in the present. By examining these texts closely within their historical and ideological contexts, Dickson-Carr shows how African American satirical novels provide the reader of African American literature with a critique of popular ideologies seldom found in nonsatirical works.
The Winner of the Slow Bicycle Race: The satirical writings of Paul Krassner by ISBN: 1888363045Publication Date: 1996-06-01A collection of unforgettable stories - part fact, part fantasy - by America's foremost counterculture historian. And as much as anyone else, Paul Krassner epitomized a strain of anarchic 1960s activism — one that became identified with the Yippies as they nominated a pig for president and rained dollar bills onto the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Along with Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin and a few others, Mr. Krassner helped found that group. He was the founder and editor of The Realist, among the earliest underground humor magazines, one that was known for outlandish and raunchy cartoons and iconoclastic political and social commentary. Its contributors included Norman Mailer, Jules Feiffer, Terry Southern, Joseph Heller, Mort Sahl, Edward Sorel and Robert Grossman. With some very long breaks, it endured into the 21st century.
Political Humor & Comedy
Humour As Politics by ISBN: 9783319509495Publication Date: 2017-10-23This book argues that recent developments in contemporary comedy have changed not just the way we laugh but the way we understand the world. Drawing on a range of contemporary televisual, cinematic and digital examples, from Seinfeld and Veep to Family Guy and Chappelle's Show, Holm explores how humour has become a central site of cultural politics in the twenty-first century. Through an analysis of humour as a political and aesthetic category, Humour as Politics challenges older models of laughter as a form of dissent and instead argues for a new theory of humour as the cultural expression of our (neo)liberal moment.
Studies in Political Humour by ISBN: 9789027282217Publication Date: 2011-11-15If politics is a serious matter and humour a funny one, this volume investigates how and why the boundaries between the two are blurred: politics can be represented in a humorous manner and humour can have a serious intent. Political humour conveys criticism against the political status quo and/or recycles and reinforces dominant views on politics. The data analysed comes from European states with different sociopolitical histories and traditions and the methodologies adopted originate in different fields (discourse analysis, folklore and cultural studies, media studies, sociolinguistics, sociology, theatre semiotics).
Playing the Fool: Subversive laughter in troubled times by ISBN: 9780226473154Publication Date: 2009-12-15The role of the fool is to provoke the powerful to question their convictions, preferably while avoiding a beating. Fools accomplish this not by hectoring their audience, but by broaching sensitive topics indirectly, often disguising their message in a joke or a tale. Writers and thinkers throughout history have adopted the fool's approach, and here Ralph Lerner turns to six of them--Thomas More, Francis Bacon, Robert Burton, Pierre Bayle, Benjamin Franklin, and Edward Gibbon--to elucidate the strategies these men employed to persuade the heedless, the zealous, and the overly confident to pause and reconsider. At once erudite and entertaining, Playing the Fool is an eloquently thought-provoking look at the lives and writings of these masterly authors.
American Political Humor: Masters of satire and their impact on U.S. policy and culture by ISBN: 9781440854866Publication Date: 2019-10-07This two-volume set surveys the profound impact of political humor and satire on American culture and politics over the years, paying special attention to the explosion of political humor in today's wide-ranging and turbulent media environment. Historically, there has been a tendency to regard political satire and humor as a sideshow to the wider world of American politics—entertaining and sometimes insightful, but ultimately only of modest interest to students and others surveying the trajectory of American politics and culture. This set documents just how mistaken that assumption is. By examining political humor and satire throughout US history, these volumes not only illustrate how expressions of political satire and humor reflect changes in American attitudes about presidents, parties, and issues but also how satirists, comedians, cartoonists, and filmmakers have helped to shape popular attitudes about landmark historical events, major American institutions and movements, and the nation's political leaders and cultural giants.
The Joke Is on Us: Political comedy in (late) neoliberal times by ISBN: 9781498569842Publication Date: 2018-12-11This edited volume brings together scholars of comedy to assess how political comedy encounters neoliberal themes in contemporary media. Central to this task is the notion of genre; under neoliberal conditions (where market logics motivate most actions) genre becomes "mixed." Once stable, discreet categories such as comedy, horror, drama and news and entertainment have become blurred so as to be indistinguishable. The classic modern paradigm of comedy/tragedy no longer holds, if it ever did. Moreover, as politics becomes more economic and less moral or normative under neoliberalism, we are able to see new resistance to comedic genres that support neoliberal strategies to hide racial and gender injustice such as unlaughter, ambiguity, and anti-comedy. Characterized by ambiguity, mixed genre and the increasing use of anti-humor, political comedy mirrors the social and political world it mocks, parodies and celebrates often with lackluster results suggesting that the joke might be on us, as audiences.
The Dance of the Comedians: The people, the president, and the performance of political standup comedy in America by ISBN: 9781558497337Publication Date: 2010-01-01Why did Barack Obama court Jon Stewart and trade jokes with Stephen Colbert during the campaign of 2008? Why did Sarah Palin forgo the opportunity to earn votes on the Sunday morning political talk shows but embrace the chance to get laughs on Saturday Night Live? The Dance of the Comedians examines the history behind these questions—the merry, mocking, and highly contested anarchies of standup political comedy that have locked humorists, presidents, and their fellow Americans in an improvisational three-way "dance" since the early years of the American republic. Peter M. Robinson places special significance on the middle half of the twentieth century, when presidents and comedians alike—from Calvin Coolidge to Ronald Reagan, from Will Rogers to Saturday Night Live's "Not Ready for Prime Time Players"—developed modern understandings of the power of laughter to affect popular opinion and political agendas, only to find the American audience increasingly willing and able to get in on the act.
Satire and the State: Sketch comedy and the presidency by ISBN: 9780429441851Publication Date: 2020-03-31Satire & The State focuses on performance-based satire, most often seen in sketch comedy, from 1960 to the present, and explores how sketch comedy has shaped the way Americans view the president and themselves. Numerous sketch comedy portrayals of presidents that have seeped into the American consciousness - Chevy Chase's Gerald Ford, Dana Carvey's George H.W. Bush, and Will Ferrell's George W. Bush all worked to shape the actual politician's public persona. The book analyzes these sketches and many others, illustrating how comedy is at the heart of the health and function of American democracy. At its best, satire aimed at the presidency can work as a populist check on executive power, becoming one of the most important weapons for everyday Americans against tyranny and political corruption. At its worst, satire can reflect and promote racism, misogyny, and homophobia in America.
Political Humor: From Aristophanes to Sam Ervin by ISBN: 0838615368Publication Date: 1976-06-01Presents and seeks to explain the variety of humor in democratic politics. The humor ranges from the bawdy political comedies of Aristophanes in ancient Athens to the journalistic satires of our daily newspapers, and includes the jokes and comic invective of the people and their politicians.
Rhetoric, Humor, and the Public Sphere: From Socrates to Stephen Colbert by ISBN: 9781498519861Publication Date: 2016-11-02Rhetoric, Humor, and the Public Sphere: From Socrates to Stephen Colbert investigates classical and contemporary understandings of satire, parody, and irony, and how these genres function within a deliberative democracy. Elizabeth Benacka examines the rhetorical history, theorization, and practice of humor spanning from ancient Greece and Rome to the contemporary United States. In particular, this book focuses on the contemporary work of Stephen Colbert and his parody of a conservative media pundit, analyzing how his humor took place in front of an uninitiated audience and ridiculed a variety of problems and controversies threatening American democracy. Ultimately, Benacka emphasizes the importance of humor as a discourse capable of calling forth a group of engaged citizens and a source of civic education in contemporary society.
Between Laughter and Satire: Aspects of the Historical Study of Humor by ISBN: 9783031217388Publication Date: 2023-03-18This book explores closely related aspects of the historical study of humour. It challenges much that has been taken for granted in a field of study for which history has been marginal. It disputes the conventional genealogical view that humour theory dates from antiquity and outlines an alternative conceptual history. It explores the variable relationships between satire and definition and concludes with a detailed case study from recent history: the iconic Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister television comedies. These are commonly seen as realistic, but better understood as presenting popularised theories for satiric and propagandistic effect. Only in their treatment of language can we assess a putative political realism.
American Satire: An anthology of writings from colonial times to the present by ISBN: 9780452011748Publication Date: 1997-04-01This entertaining, informative collection covers the best of American satire--from Ben Franklin's cutting satiric attacks to Nathaniel Hawthorne's Celestial Railroad, Calvin Trillin's Old Marrieds, Mark Twain's American Abroad to P.J. O'Rourke's The Innocents Abroad--Updated, a late 20th-century take on Twain's classic piece.
The National Joker: Abraham Lincoln and the politics of satire by ISBN: 9780809334223Publication Date: 2015-07-08Abraham Lincoln's sense of humor proved legendary during his own time and remains a celebrated facet of his personality to this day. Indeed, his love of jokes—hearing them, telling them, drawing morals from them—prompted critics to dub Lincoln "the National Joker." In this intriguing study, Todd Nathan Thompson considers the politically productive tension between Lincoln's use of satire and the satiric treatments of him in political cartoons, humor periodicals, joke books, and campaign literature. By fashioning a folksy, fallible persona, Thompson shows, Lincoln was able to use satire as a weapon without being severely wounded by it. Time and time again, Thompson shows, Lincoln engaged in self-mockery, turning negative assumptions or depictions of him—as ugly, cowardly, jocular, inexperienced—into positive traits that identified him as an everyman while attacking his opponents' claims to greatness, heroism, and experience as aristocratic or demagogic.
A Decade of Dark Humor: How comedy, irony, and satire shaped post-9/11 America by ISBN: 9781617030062Publication Date: 2011-08-01A Decade of Dark Humor analyzes ways in which popular and visual culture used humor-in a variety of forms-to confront the attacks of September 11, 2001 and, more specifically, the aftermath. This interdisciplinary volume brings together scholars from four countries to discuss the impact of humor and irony on both media discourse and tangible political reality. The volume's contributors cover a broad range of media productions, including news parodies (The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Colbert Report, The Onion), TV roundtable shows (Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher), comic strips and cartoons (Aaron McGruder's The Boondocks, Jeff Danzinger's editorial cartoons), television drama (Rescue Me), animated satire (South Park), graphic novels (Art Spiegelman's In the Shadow of No Towers), documentary (Fahrenheit 9/11), and other productions.
Entertaining Politics by ISBN: 9780742565272Publication Date: 2009-12-16In this completely revised and updated edition (including eight new chapters), Jeffrey Jones charts the evolution and maturation of political entertainment television by examining The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Colbert Report, Politically Incorrect/Real Time with Bill Maher, and Michael Moore's TV Nation and The Awful Truth. This volume investigates how and why these shows have been central locations for the critique of political and economic power and an important resource for citizens during numerous political crises. In an age of Truthiness, fake news and humorous political talk have proven themselves viable forms of alternative reporting and critical means for ascertaining truth, and in the process, questioning the legitimacy of news media's role as the primary mediator of political life. The book also addresses the persistent claims that these programs have cynical effects and create misinformed young citizens, demonstrating instead how such programming provides for an informed, active, and meaningful citizenship.
Satire TV: Politics and comedy in the post-network era by ISBN: 9780814731994Publication Date: 2009-04-01Satirical TV has become mandatory viewing for citizens wishing to make sense of the bizarre contemporary state of political life. Shifts in industry economics and audience tastes have re-made television comedy, once considered a wasteland of escapist humor, into what is arguably the most popular source of political critique. From fake news and pundit shows to animated sitcoms and mash-up videos, satire has become an important avenue for processing politics in informative and entertaining ways, and satire TV is now its own thriving, viable television genre. Satire TV examines what happens when comedy becomes political, and politics become funny. A series of original essays focus on a range of programs, from The Daily Show to South Park, Da Ali G Show to The Colbert Report, The Boondocks to Saturday Night Live, Lil' Bush to Chappelle's Show, along with Internet D.I.Y. satire and essays on British and Canadian satire.
Politics Is a Joke! How TV Comedians are Remaking Political Life by ISBN: 9780813347172Publication Date: 2014-07-01Does late night political humor matter? Are late-night comedians merely entertaining, or do they have the power to influence the way we think about politics and politicians? Politics Is a Joke! situates late night comedy in the historical context of political humor and demonstrates how the public turn to this venue for political information, and are in turn affected by it. Using exclusive data collected by the Center for Media and Public Affairs, the authors conduct a detailed and exhaustive analysis of political jokes on late night TV shows dating back to 1992 in order to pinpoint the main targets and themes of late-night comedy.
America According to Colbert: Satire as public pedagogy by ISBN: 9780230104662Publication Date: 2011-11-30America According to Colbert: Satire as Public Pedagogy post 9/11 argues that, in contrast to the anti-intellectualism, the sensationalism, and the punditry that tend to govern most mass media today, Stephen Colbert's program offers his audience the opportunity to understand the context through which most news is reported and to be critical of it.
The Stewart/Colbert Effect: Essays on the Real Impacts of Fake News by ISBN: 9780786458868Publication Date: 2011-05-18The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report have attracted much interest in recent years from popular audiences as well as scholars in various disciplines. Both Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have been named on Time magazine's list of the most influential people in the world. The ten essays in this interdisciplinary collection explore the issues engendered by the popularity of entertainment news, including the role of satire in politics, the declining level of trust in traditional sources of media, the shows' cathartic or informational function, and the ways in which these shows influence public opinion.
Dubious Pundits: Presidential politics, late-night comedy, and the public sphere by ISBN: 9781498567367Publication Date: 2019-05-20Over the last decades of the 20th century, and into the 21st, humor on late-night TV became a more influential part of the United States' political conversations. Not only did viewers talk about what the shows were saying, but serious journalists in newspapers and television news did as well. This book explores how Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert became popular pundits, with their commentaries often being shown on the news or quoted in the papers, and how Tina Fey's parody of Sarah Palin eclipsed the real life candidate herself. This transformation occurred after the attacks on 9/11 and the beginning of the War in Iraq, when comedy figures were often more critical and informative than traditional news sources. At the same time, they became more substantive in their critiques than political humor often had been in the past, which relied heavily on mocking political candidates' personality quirks. Using transcripts from Saturday Night Live, The Daily Show, and The Colbert Report during the presidential elections from 1980-2008, this book takes a comprehensive look at how the comedy itself transformed.
Late Night with Trump: Political humor and the American presidency by ISBN: 9781138370647Publication Date: 2019-12-02Political humor has been a staple of late-night television for decades. The Trump White House, however, has received significantly greater attention than that of past presidents, such as Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and even Bill Clinton. In response to Trump's strident politics, late-night comics, including Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Trevor Noah and Jimmy Fallon, have sounded key policy notes, further blurring the boundary between news and satire. Weekly humorists, including John Oliver and Samantha Bee, extend the critique with in-depth probing of key issues, while Saturday Night Live continues to tap the progression from outrage to outrageousness. Using unique content analysis techniques and qualitative discussions of political humor, Farnsworth and Lichter show how late-night political humor, and these seven programs in particular, have responded to the Trump presidency.
Laughter, Outrage and Resistance: Post-Trump TV satire in political discourse and dissent by ISBN: 9781433176470Publication Date: 2020-09-30The rise of candidate, then president, Donald Trump coincided with a near-total turnover of late-night hosts, as well as the additions of late-night shows in new formats. The result has changed the paradigm of late-night talk show hosting, in which each host or segment must weigh the political leanings of their audiences and their personal convictions as they choose how to poke fun at or pontificate on the issues of the day. This volume examines the communication strategies, informed and influenced by their individual experiences, employed by the hosts as they seek to handle Trump and the fast-moving news cycle that trails in his wake.
Political Scandal in Literature
Scandalmonger by ISBN: 0684867192Publication Date: 2000-02-02In a fictional exploration of America's early political scandals, James Thomson Callender, a muckraking journalist, reveals scandals in the lives of both Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson.
Katherine by ISBN: 9780544222885Publication Date: 2013-10-01Set in the vibrant fourteenth century of Chaucer and the Black Death, the story features knights fighting in battle, serfs struggling in poverty, and the magnificent Plantagenets--Edward III, the Black Prince, and Richard II--who rule despotically over a court rotten with intrigue. Within this era of danger and romance, John of Gaunt, the king's son, falls passionately in love with the already-married Katherine. Their affair persists through decades of war, adultery, murder, loneliness, and redemption. Anya Seton's vivid rendering of the lives of the Duke and Duchess of Lancaster makes Katherine an unmistakable classic.
Wolf Hall by ISBN: 9780312429980Publication Date: 2010-08-31England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years and marry Anne Boleyn. The pope and most of Europe opposes him. Into this impasse steps Thomas Cromwell: a wholly original man, a charmer and a bully, both idealist and opportunist, astute in reading people, and implacable in his ambition. But Henry is volatile: one day tender, one day murderous. Cromwell helps him break the opposition, but what will be the price of his triumph?
The Other Boleyn Girl by ISBN: 0743227441Publication Date: 2002-06-04When Mary Boleyn comes to court as an innocent girl of fourteen, she catches the eye of the handsome and charming Henry VIII. Dazzled by the king, Mary falls in love with both her golden prince and her growing role as unofficial queen. However, she soon realizes just how much she is a pawn in her family's ambitious plots as the king's interest begins to wane, and soon she is forced to step aside for her best friend and rival: her sister, Anne. With her own destiny suddenly unknown, Mary realizes that she must defy her family and take fate into her own hands. With more than one million copies in print and adapted for the big screen, The Other Boleyn Girl is a riveting historical drama. It brings to light a woman of extraordinary determination and desire who lived at the heart of the most exciting and glamorous court in Europe, and survived a treacherous political landscape by following her heart.
Burr by ISBN: 9780375708732Publication Date: 2000-02-15Here is an extraordinary portrait of one of the most complicated--and misunderstood--figures among the Founding Fathers. In 1804, while serving as vice president, Aaron Burr fought a duel with his political nemesis, Alexander Hamilton, and killed him. In 1807, he was arrested, tried, and acquitted of treason. In 1833, Burr is newly married, an aging statesman considered a monster by many. But he is determined to tell his own story, and he chooses to confide in a young New York City journalist named Charles Schermerhorn Schuyler. Together, they explore both Burr's past--and the continuing civic drama of their young nation.
Loving Frank by ISBN: 9780345494993Publication Date: 2007-08-07I have been standing on the side of life, watching it float by. I want to swim in the river. I want to feel the current. So writes Mamah Borthwick Cheney in her diary as she struggles to justify her clandestine love affair with Frank Lloyd Wright. In this ambitious debut novel, fact and fiction blend together brilliantly. While scholars have largely relegated Mamah to a footnote in the life of America's greatest architect, author Nancy Horan gives full weight to their dramatic love story and illuminates Cheney's profound influence on Wright. Drawing on years of research, Horan weaves little-known facts into a compelling narrative, vividly portraying the conflicts and struggles of a woman forced to choose between the roles of mother, wife, lover, and intellectual.
All the President's Men by ISBN: 9780671217815Publication Date: 1974-06-15Beginning with the story of a simple burglary at Democratic headquarters and then continuing with headline after headline, Bernstein and Woodward kept the tale of conspiracy and the trail of dirty tricks coming -- delivering the stunning revelations and pieces in the Watergate puzzle that brought about Nixon's scandalous downfall. Their explosive reports won a Pulitzer Prize for "The Washington Post" and toppled the President.
The Plot to Seize the White House by ISBN: 9781632203588Publication Date: 2015-04-14The true story of a plot to overthrow Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the nearly forgotten Marine who saved American Democracy. Many simply don't know that in 1933, a group of wealthy industrialists—working closely with groups like the K.K.K. and the American Liberty League—planned to overthrow the U.S. government and run F.D.R. out of office in a fascist coup. Historian Julies Archer here offers a compelling account of a plot that would have turned FDR into fascist puppet, threatened American democracy and changed the course of history. This book not only reveals the truth behind this shocking episode in history, but also tells the story of the man whose courage and bravery prevented it from happening.
The Pentagon Papers by ISBN: 9781631582929Publication Date: 2017-12-12Published by The New York Times in 1971, The Pentagon Papers riveted an already deeply divided nation with startling and disturbing revelations about the United States' involvement in Vietnam. Their release demonstrated that our government had systematically lied to both the public and to Congress. They remain relevant today as a reminder of the importance of a free press and all First Amendment rights.
Watergate: A New History by ISBN: 9781982139186Publication Date: 2022-02-15From the New York Times bestselling author of The Only Plane in the Sky, comes the first definitive narrative history of Watergate—"the best and fullest account of the crisis, one unlikely to be surpassed anytime soon" (Kirkus Reviews, starred review)—exploring the full scope of the scandal through the politicians, investigators, journalists, and informants who made it the most influential political event of the modern era. Award-winning journalist and bestselling author Garrett M. Graff explores the full scope of this unprecedented moment from start to finish, in the first comprehensive, single-volume account in decades.
The Teapot Dome Scandal: How big oil bought the Harding White House and tried to steal the country by ISBN: 9781400063161Publication Date: 2008-02-05In the Teapot Dome Scandal, acclaimed author Laton McCartney tells the amazing, complex, and at times ribald story of how Big Oil handpicked Warren G. Harding, an obscure Ohio senator, to serve as our twenty-third president. Harding and his so-called "oil cabinet" made it possible for the oilmen to secure vast fuel reserves that had been set aside for wartime use by the U.S. Navy. In exchange, the oilmen paid off senior government officials, bribed newspaper publishers, and covered the GOP campaign debt. When news of the scandal finally emerged, the consequences were disastrous for the nation and for the principles in the plot to bilk the taxpayers. Stonewalling by members of Harding's circle kept a lid on the story - witnesses developed "family" memories or fled the country, and important documents went missing - but contemporary records newly made available to McCartney reveal a shocking, revelatory picture of just how far - reaching the affair was, how high the stakes, and how powerful the conspirators.
The Petticoat Affair: Manners, mutiny, and sex in Andrew Jackson's White House by ISBN: 0684828014Publication Date: 1998-01-26This account of the Eaton Affair describes the story of how Peggy O'Neale Eaton, the wife of President Andrew Jackson's secretary of war, was branded a loose woman and snubbed by Washington society. The president's defence of her honour fuelled intense speculation and a scandal began.
Iran-Contra: Reagan's Scandal and the Unchecked Abuse of Presidential Power by ISBN: 9780700620364Publication Date: 2014-10-15Everything began to unravel on October 5, 1986, when a Nicaraguan soldier downed an American plane carrying arms to "Contra" guerrillas, exposing a tightly held U.S. clandestine program. A month later, reports surfaced that Washington had been covertly selling arms to Iran (our sworn enemy and a state sponsor of terrorism), in exchange for help freeing hostages in Beirut. The profits, it turned out, were going to support the Contras, despite an explicit ban by Congress. In the firestorm that erupted, shocking details emerged, raising the prospect of impeachment, and the American public confronted a scandal as momentous as it was confusing. At its center was President Ronald Reagan amid a swirl of questions about illegal wars, consorting with terrorists, and the abuse of presidential power. Through exhaustive use of declassified documents, previously unavailable investigative materials, and wide-ranging interviews, Malcolm Byrne revisits this largely forgotten and misrepresented episode.
All the Truth Is Out: The week politics went tabloid by ISBN: 9780307273383Publication Date: 2014-09-30In 1987, Gary Hart-articulate, dashing, refreshingly progressive-seemed a shoo-in for the Democratic nomination for president and led George H. W. Bush comfortably in the polls. And then, rumors of marital infidelity, an indelible photo of Hart and a model snapped near a fatefully named yacht (Monkey Business), and it all came crashing down in a blaze of flashbulbs, the birth of 24-hour news cycles, tabloid speculation, and late-night farce. Matt Bai shows how the Hart affair marked a crucial turning point in the ethos of political media-and, by extension, politics itself-when candidates' "character" began to draw more fixation than their political experience. Bai offers a poignant, highly original, and news-making reappraisal of Hart's fall from grace (and overlooked political legacy) as he makes the compelling case that this was the moment when the paradigm shifted-private lives became public, news became entertainment, and politics became the stuff of Page Six.
The Politics of Disgrace: The role of political scandal in American politics by ISBN: 9781594605086Publication Date: 2010-03-01The Politics of Disgrace takes a close look at the role political scandals play in American government. These political scandals are certainly not new to the political arena. Politicians have been accused of unethical or immoral behavior for hundreds of years. The charges have been made against presidents, members of Congress, and judges, at the federal, state and local levels. In some cases, the allegations are purely political; other times, there is truth to the charges. No matter the source or circumstances of the allegation, there are many investigative bodies responsible for discovering the truth about the charges and recommending punishment. Attention is given to major political scandals, including Teapot Dome, Watergate, ABSCAM, and Iran-Contra, and the Jones/Lewinsky case that resulted in the impeachment of President Clinton.
Scandal and Silence: Media responses to Presidential Misconduct by ISBN: 9780745675800Publication Date: 2013-04-19This timely and engaging book challenges the conventional wisdom on media and scandal in the United States. The common view holds that media crave and actively pursue scandals whenever they sense corruption. Scandal and Silence argues for a different perspective. Using case studies from the period 1988-2008, it shows that: Media neglect most corruption, providing too little, not too much scandal coverage; Scandals arise from rational, controlled processes, not emotional frenzies—and when scandals happen, it's not the media but governments and political parties that drive the process and any excesses that might occur; Significant scandals are indeed difficult for news organizations to initiate and harder for them to maintain and bring to appropriate closure; For these reasons cover-ups and lying often work, and truth remains essentially unrecorded, unremembered. Sometimes, bad behavior stimulates an avalanche of media attention with demonstrable political consequences, yet other times, equally shoddy activity receives little notice. This book advances a theoretical model to explain these differences, revealing an underlying logic to what might seem arbitrary and capricious journalism.
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by ISBN: 9780141187693Publication Date: 1914Robert Tressell's spirited attack on selfish capitalism is a masterpiece of wit and political passion and one of the most authentic novels of English working class life ever written. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists tells the story of a group of working men who are joined one day by Frank Owen, a journeyman-prophet with a vision of a just society. Indicting the 'philanthropy' of the working class, who toil solely for the benefit of their masters, and initiating them into the secrets of the 'Great Money Trick' which alienates them from their labour, Owen's attacks on the greed and dishonesty of the capitalist system rouse his fellow men from their political quietism.
The Good Soldier Svejk by Call Number: https://iucat.iu.edu/catalog/1386296ISBN: 0140182748Publication Date: 1990-08-23Hašek’s furious and hilarious satire of the first world war remained unfinished at his death in 1923, but inspired every subsequent act of rebellion in eastern Europe and beyond. Based on his own experiences in the conflict, the grim adventures of Hašek’s indelible infantryman established the idea of war as the ultimate human absurdity. Joseph Heller often said Catch 22 could never have existed without it.The book was banned by Nazis and Soviet communists, but Švejk’s mixture of cunning and resilience had the last laugh among Czechoslavakia’s samizdat intellectuals who reflected its spirit, and cited its influence, in the 1989 revolution.
What a Carve Up! by ISBN: 9780241978917Publication Date: 1994It is the 1980s and the Winshaw family are getting richer and crueller by the year: Newspaper-columnist Hilary gets thousands for telling it like it isn't; Henry's turning hospitals into car parks; Roddy's selling art in return for sex; down on the farm Dorothy's squeezing every last pound from her livestock; Thomas is making a killing on the stock exchange; and Mark is selling arms to dictators. But once their hapless biographer Michael Owen starts investigating the family's trail of greed, corruption and immoral doings, the time growing ripe for the Winshaws to receive their comeuppance. This wickedly funny take on life under the Thatcher government was the winner of the 1995 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize.
Animal Farm by ISBN: 9780151072552Publication Date: 1945In 1984, London is a grim city in the totalitarian state of Oceania where Big Brother is always watching you and the Thought Police can practically read your mind. Winston Smith is a man in grave danger for the simple reason that his memory still functions. Drawn into a forbidden love affair, Winston finds the courage to join a secret revolutionary organization called The Brotherhood, dedicated to the destruction of the Party. Together with his beloved Julia, he hazards his life in a deadly match against the powers that be.
Catch-22 by ISBN: 0679437223Publication Date: 1995-10-17One of the funniest books ever written, Joseph Heller's masterpiece about a bomber squadron in the Second World War's Italian theater features a gallery of magnificently strange characters seething with comic energy. The malingering hero, Yossarian, is endlessly inventive in his schemes to save his skin from the horrible chances of war, and his story is studded with incidents and devices (including the Glorious Loyalty Oath Crusade and the hilariously sinister bureaucratic rule that gives the book its title) that propel the narrative in a headlong satiric rush.
The Sellout by ISBN: 9781250083258Publication Date: 2016-03-01A biting satire about a young man's isolated upbringing and the race trial that sends him to the Supreme Court, Paul Beatty's The Sellout showcases a comic genius at the top of his game. It challenges the sacred tenets of the United States Constitution, urban life, the civil rights movement, the father-son relationship, and the holy grail of racial equality--the black Chinese restaurant. Raised by a single father, a controversial sociologist, he spent his childhood as the subject in racially charged psychological studies. He is led to believe that his father's pioneering work will result in a memoir that will solve his family's financial woes. But when his father is killed in a police shoot-out, he realizes there never was a memoir. Fuelled by this deceit and the general disrepair of his hometown, the narrator sets out to right another wrong: Dickens has literally been removed from the map to save California from further embarrassment. Enlisting the help of the town's most famous resident--the last surviving Little Rascal, Hominy Jenkins--he initiates the most outrageous action conceivable: reinstating slavery and segregating the local high school, which lands him in the Supreme Court.
Interior Chinatown by ISBN: 9780307907196Publication Date: 2020-01-28Willis Wu doesn't perceive himself as the protagonist in his own life: he's merely Generic Asian Man. Sometimes he gets to be Background Oriental Making a Weird Face or even Disgraced Son, but always he is relegated to a prop. Yet every day, he leaves his tiny room in a Chinatown SRO and enters the Golden Palace restaurant, where Black and White, a procedural cop show, is in perpetual production. He's a bit player here, too, but he dreams of being Kung Fu Guy—the most respected role that anyone who looks like him can attain. Or is it? After stumbling into the spotlight, Willis finds himself launched into a wider world than he's ever known, discovering not only the secret history of Chinatown, but the buried legacy of his own family. Infinitely inventive and deeply personal, exploring the themes of pop culture, assimilation, and immigration—Interior Chinatown is Charles Yu's most moving, daring, and masterful novel yet.
American Woman by ISBN: 0060542217Publication Date: 2003-08-19On the lam for an act of violence against the American government, 25-year-old Jenny Shimada agrees to care for three younger fugitives whom a shadowy figure from her former radical life has spirited out of California. One of them, the kidnapped granddaughter of a wealthy newspaper magnate in San Francisco, has become a national celebrity for embracing her captors' ideology and joining their revolutionary cell. "A brilliant read...astonishing in its honesty and confidence," (Denver Post) American Woman explores the psychology of the young radicals, the intensity of their isolated existence, and the paranoia and fear that undermine their ideals.
Rodham by ISBN: 9780399590917Publication Date: 2020-05-19In 1971, Hillary Rodham is a young woman full of promise: Life magazine has covered her Wellesley commencement speech, she's attending Yale Law School, and she's on the forefront of student activism and the women's rights movement. And then she meets Bill Clinton. A handsome, charismatic southerner and fellow law student, Bill is already planning his political career. In each other, the two find a profound intellectual, emotional, and physical connection that neither has previously experienced. In the real world, Hillary followed Bill back to Arkansas, and he proposed several times; although she said no more than once, as we all know, she eventually accepted and became Hillary Clinton. But in Curtis Sittenfeld's powerfully imagined tour-de-force of fiction, Hillary takes a different road. Feeling doubt about the prospective marriage, she endures their devastating breakup and leaves Arkansas. Over the next four decades, she blazes her own trail—one that unfolds in public as well as in private, that involves crossing paths again (and again) with Bill Clinton, that raises questions about the tradeoffs all of us must make in building a life. Brilliantly weaving a riveting fictional tale into actual historical events, Curtis Sittenfeld delivers an uncannily astute and witty story for our times.
Milkman by ISBN: 9780571342730Publication Date: 2018-12-04In this unnamed city, to be interesting is dangerous. Middle sister, our protagonist, is busy attempting to keep her mother from discovering her maybe-boyfriend and to keep everyone in the dark about her encounter with Milkman. But when first brother-in-law sniffs out her struggle, and rumours start to swell, middle sister becomes 'interesting'. The last thing she ever wanted to be. To be interesting is to be noticed and to be noticed is dangerous. Milkman is a tale of gossip and hearsay, silence and deliberate deafness. It is the story of inaction with enormous consequences.
Lincoln in the Bardo by ISBN: 9780812995343Publication Date: 2017-02-14The Civil War is less than one year old. The fighting has begun in earnest, and the nation has begun to realize it is in for a long, bloody struggle. Meanwhile, President Lincoln's beloved eleven-year-old son, Willie, lies upstairs in the White House, gravely ill. In a matter of days, despite predictions of a recovery, Willie dies and is laid to rest in a Georgetown cemetery. "My poor boy, he was too good for this earth," the president says at the time. "God has called him home." Newspapers report that a grief-stricken Lincoln returns, alone, to the crypt several times to hold his boy's body. From that seed of historical truth, George Saunders spins an unforgettable story of familial love and loss that breaks free of its realistic, historical framework into a supernatural realm both hilarious and terrifying. Formally daring, generous in spirit, deeply concerned with matters of the heart, it is a testament to fiction's ability to speak honestly and powerfully to the things that really matter to us.
A Burning by ISBN: 9780525658696Publication Date: 2020-06-02Jivan is a Muslim girl from the slums, determined to move up in life, who is accused of executing a terrorist attack on a train because of a careless comment on Facebook. PT Sir is an opportunistic gym teacher who hitches his aspirations to a right-wing political party and finds that his own ascent becomes linked to Jivan's fall. Lovely—an irresistible outcast whose exuberant voice and dreams of glory fill the novel with warmth and hope and humor--has the alibi that can set Jivan free, but it will cost her everything she holds dear. Taut, symphonic, propulsive, and riveting from its opening lines, A Burning is an electrifying debut.
In the Time of the Butterflies by ISBN: 9781565129764Publication Date: 2010-01-12It is November 25, 1960, and three beautiful sisters have been found near their wrecked Jeep at the bottom of a 150-foot cliff on the north coast of the Dominican Republic. The official state newspaper reports their deaths as accidental. It does not mention that a fourth sister lives. Nor does it explain that the sisters were among the leading opponents of Gen. Rafael Leónidas Trujillo's dictatorship. It doesn't have to. Everybody knows of Las Mariposas—the Butterflies. In this extraordinary novel, the voices of all four sisters—Minerva, Patria, María Teresa, and the survivor, Dedé—speak across the decades to tell their own stories, from secret crushes to gunrunning, and to describe the everyday horrors of life under Trujillo's rule. Through the art and magic of Julia Alvarez's imagination, the martyred Butterflies live again in this novel of courage and love, and the human costs of political oppression.
The Sympathizer by ISBN: 9780802123459Publication Date: 2015-04-07The winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, as well as seven other awards, The Sympathizer is the breakthrough novel of the year. With the pace and suspense of a thriller and prose that has been compared to Graham Greene and Saul Bellow, The Sympathizer is a sweeping epic of love and betrayal. The narrator, a communist double agent, is a "man of two minds," a half-French, half-Vietnamese army captain who arranges to come to America after the Fall of Saigon, and while building a new life with other Vietnamese refugees in Los Angeles is secretly reporting back to his communist superiors in Vietnam. The Sympathizer is a blistering exploration of identity and America, a gripping espionage novel, and a powerful story of love and friendship.
