American Humor: A Study of the National Character

by Constance Rourke, Greil Marcus (Introduction)

Stepping out of the darkness, the American emerges upon the stage of history as a new character, as puzzling to himself as to others. American Humor , Constance Rourke's pioneering "study of the national character," singles out the archetypal figures of the Yankee peddler, the backwoodsman, and the blackface minstrel to illuminate the fundamental role of popular culture in fashioning a distinctive American sensibility. A memorable performance in its own right, American Humor crackles with the jibes and jokes of generations while presenting a striking picture of a vagabond nation in perpetual self-pursuit. Davy Crockett and Henry James, Jim Crow and Emily Dickinson rub shoulders in a work that inspired such later critics as Pauline Kael and Lester Bangs and which still has much to say about the America of Bob Dylan and Thomas Pynchon, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

Genres: Humor, Nonfiction, History, Comedy, American History, Essays, Literary Criticism

258 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1931

About the author

1885-1941

Reviews

[Timothy · Rating 4 out of 5]

First off: the style of this book is so lovely that it is a pleasure to read, almost regardless of the actual content. Rourke writes in a delicate and oblique fashion worthy of a good novelist. This is, of course, an old book, and the depictions of American territorial expansion and of racist caricature will likely cause the contemporary reader to cringe now and then. The subject matter of the book is more aptly summed up in the subtitle than in the primary title: "humor," narrowly defined, is only one among many topics covered here. What is really at issue is the search for unique characteristics of American literature and how they derive from a national collective consciousness. One complaint is that the author seemed to feel obligated to cover every major American author active in the 19th century: she gives the impression of having something to say about James and Dickinson but to hammer out a few uninspired pages about Melville. As some of the other reviews mention, this book is better at conveying insightful, pithy quotes than factual information. It will not serve as a general primer on American literature or as a hard scholarly resource, but it is a highly worthwhile read on aesthetic grounds alone.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this critical study, Rourke ranges far and wide across the landscape of American culture, from the post-colonial beginnings of an identifiable American culture up to the 1920s. Her focus is on humor, but only loosely, as she emphasizes the importance of humor in relation to her real topic: the development of the American character as it is presented in the literature and theater of the times. She engages in a large number of critiques, none of them particularly in-depth or biographical, but many of her insights, particularly in regard to an author's tone and relationship to the march of cultural history, are intriguing.

Rourke regards the shrewd and dry-humored Yankee as the basis of much of our culture. He gave rise to the woodsman and his tall tales of frontier life. The Black sensibility of course developed on its own. She points out the central presence of a variety of types of humor in American life. From examining the work of some dramatists and tale-spinners, she takes us through a cursory discussion of some of the giants of American literature: Poe, Melville, James, Dickinson, and Lewis, to name a few. By today's standards, this is pretty quaint stuff - but it is still valid and interesting; a good book for any student of American literature and culture.

[Ebony · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is old. Not that I'm against old, but it weirded me out when she kept saying 50s and I had to remember 1850s. The title is misleading. To me, the book was not about humor. It was a survey of American figures in literature. Before there were literary figures there were figures of folk expression. Literary figures became folk figures as they were literally shaped by the changing American geographical landscape. She covers history from the 1850s to the turn of the century pretty well if you’re interested in those stories. I was not so much. I grew wary of all the Negro/blackface talk and rather resented the claim that being black was funny back in the day, but that might explain why it took until the mid-60s for black humor to go mainstream. Blacks were too busy trying to shed the stereotype. Humor in the mid-60s and 70s did rail on the white folks but then it became minstrelsy again not long after that. I guess I'd have to read a book on humor in the 20t century to have answers to those quandaries.

[Miles Stephenson · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most fascinating looks at American social history and the various archetypes (the Yankee, the backwoodsman, and the minstrel) that have endured as ways of life and personalities in the states.

[Claire]

Quite fascinating actually

[Mariel · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is an important American Studies text, and I can see why the American Studies people like it. Historians? We're a little fussy about things like "documentation" and "factual accuracy." But seriously, that should not interfere with the importance (and prescience) of her approach.

The first five chapters examine American "types" from which Rourke argues an American literary tradition emerges. She looks at Melville, Twain and Poe (and others) pulling their characters from the "type" of the Yankee Peddler, the backwoodsman, "Jim Crow," and the Irish/urban immigrant.

I really can't speak to her literary argument (only partly because I didn't read that part). I know that some scholarly reviewers strongly disagreed with much of her argument, and that others were more forgiving in favor of her novel approach. I think that anyone's opinion of this book will probably come down to one's field.

[Barry · Rating 5 out of 5]

A remarkable work of criticism. I didn't expect to end up reading about Henry James and Emily Dickinson in a book with this title, but it shows them in a different light.