Bauman, Richard and Joel Sherzer, editors. Explorations in
the
Ethnography of
Speaking. Cambridge
and New York: Cambridge University Press.
A broad, cross-cultural survey of the use, role, and function of
language and speech in everyday life.
Boskin, Joseph, ed. "The Urban Landscape." In The Humor
Prism in
20th Century
America. Detroit: Wayne State University Press,
1997.
A brief historical overview of American humor which ends at
the urban landscape.
Boskin posits that just as American humor has changed with
time, so it has changed
with geography; in this century, humor is in the city. A
more extended analysis of this
provocative argument would have been helpful.
Botkin, B. A. New York City Folklore. New York: Random
House,
1956.
A primary source collection of legends, tall tales,
anecdotes, stories, sagas, heroes and
characters, customs, traditions, and sayings about New York
City with brief analysis
and commentary by Botkin. Contents divided by locations,
story types, and
characters.
Brown, Mari and Deanna Pucelli. There Goes the
Neighborhood. Unpublished script. Performed in several
venues in
Brooklyn, New York: 2004.
A one-woman show about the gentrification and transformation of
Carroll Gardens,
Brooklyn. Pucelli performs a number of characters who live
in Carroll Gardens. These characters include Italians whose
families have lived in the neighborhood for several
generations and transplants from either Manhattan or out of
state. Humor is a central element in the performance.
Mintz, Lawrence E., ed. Humor in America: Research Guide
to
Genres and Topics.
Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, Inc., 1988.
Includes essays by Pogel and Summers, Inge, Sloane,
Gehring, Mintz, Koziski Olson,
Dresner, Dorison and Boskin, Whitfield, and Oring. Good
overview of the study of
American humor. Each essay addresses either a topic or
genre of American humor.
Particularly pertinent to the study of New York humor are
the essays by Stephanie
Koziski Olson ("Standup Comedy"), Joseph Dorinson and
Joseph Boskin ("Racial and
Ethnic Humor"), and Elliot Oring ("Folklore Methodology and
American Humor
Research").
Oring, Elliot. "The People of the Joke: On the Conceptualization
of a Jewish
Humor." In The Humor Prism in 20th Century
America. Edited
by Joseph Boskin.
Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1997.
Oring states at the onset that his essay "will explore the
image of the Jews as a
peculiarly humorous people with a distinctive body of
witticism, jokes, and
anecdotes." As indicated in the title, the essay does focus
on the conceptualization of a
Jewish humor and not on Jewish jokes per se. Well
articulated and thought-provoking
analysis that begins with the interesting claim that Jewish
humor is a relatively
modern invention.
Rubin, Jr., Louis D. "The Great American Joke." In What's So
Funny?: Humor in
American Culture. Edited by Nancy
A. Walker. Wilmington: Scholarly Resources,
Inc.,1998.
A critical essay which claims that humor has always been an
essential aspect of
American literature because of the gap between the lofty
ideals of a democracy and
the mundane realities of everyday life. Although Rubin
focuses on literature, this
essay is very relevant to New York humor, oral or written,
since arguably there exists
in New York a similar discrepancy between expectations and
day to day reality.
Wachs, Eleanor. Crime-Victim Stories: New York City's Urban
Folklore. Bloomington
and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1988.
An important study of the New York City personal narrative
which Wachs uses to
look at how New Yorkers respond to violent crimes. The book
studies the common
themes and characteristics of the stories Wachs has
collected.
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