Death by Laughter: Female Hysteria and Early Cinema
Can you really die from laughing too hard? Between 1870 and 1920, hundreds of women suffered such a fate-or so a slew of sensationalist obituaries would have us believe. How could laughter be fatal, and what do these reports of women's risible deaths tell us about the politics of female joy?Mag...
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| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Electronic eBook |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
New York, NY
Columbia University Press
[2024]
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| Series: | Film and Culture Series
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Volltext |
| Summary: | Can you really die from laughing too hard? Between 1870 and 1920, hundreds of women suffered such a fate-or so a slew of sensationalist obituaries would have us believe. How could laughter be fatal, and what do these reports of women's risible deaths tell us about the politics of female joy?Maggie Hennefeld reveals the forgotten histories of "hysterical laughter," exploring how women's amusement has been theorized and demonized, suppressed and exploited. In nineteenth-century medicine and culture, hysteria was an ailment that afflicted unruly women on the cusp of emotional or nervous breakdown. Cinema, Hennefeld argues, made it possible for women to laugh outrageously as never before, with irreversible social and political consequences. As female enjoyment became a surefire promise of profitability, alarmist tales of women laughing themselves to death epitomized the tension between subversive pleasure and its violent repression.Hennefeld traces the social politics of women's laughter from the heyday of nineteenth-century sentimentalism to the collective euphoria of early film spectatorship, traversing contagious dancing outbreaks, hysteria photography, madwomen's cackling, cinematic close-ups, and screenings of slapstick movies in mental asylums. Placing little-known silent films and an archive of remarkable, often unusual texts in conversation with affect theory, comedy studies, and feminist film theory, this book makes a timely case for the power of hysterical laughter to change the world |
| Item Description: | Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 26. Apr 2024) |
| Physical Description: | 1 Online-Ressource |
| ISBN: | 9780231559812 |
| DOI: | 10.7312/henn21328 |
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| spelling | Hennefeld, Maggie Verfasser aut Death by Laughter Female Hysteria and Early Cinema Maggie Hennefeld New York, NY Columbia University Press [2024] © 2024 1 Online-Ressource txt rdacontent c rdamedia cr rdacarrier Film and Culture Series Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 26. Apr 2024) Can you really die from laughing too hard? Between 1870 and 1920, hundreds of women suffered such a fate-or so a slew of sensationalist obituaries would have us believe. How could laughter be fatal, and what do these reports of women's risible deaths tell us about the politics of female joy?Maggie Hennefeld reveals the forgotten histories of "hysterical laughter," exploring how women's amusement has been theorized and demonized, suppressed and exploited. In nineteenth-century medicine and culture, hysteria was an ailment that afflicted unruly women on the cusp of emotional or nervous breakdown. Cinema, Hennefeld argues, made it possible for women to laugh outrageously as never before, with irreversible social and political consequences. As female enjoyment became a surefire promise of profitability, alarmist tales of women laughing themselves to death epitomized the tension between subversive pleasure and its violent repression.Hennefeld traces the social politics of women's laughter from the heyday of nineteenth-century sentimentalism to the collective euphoria of early film spectatorship, traversing contagious dancing outbreaks, hysteria photography, madwomen's cackling, cinematic close-ups, and screenings of slapstick movies in mental asylums. Placing little-known silent films and an archive of remarkable, often unusual texts in conversation with affect theory, comedy studies, and feminist film theory, this book makes a timely case for the power of hysterical laughter to change the world In English PERFORMING ARTS / Film & Video / History & Criticism bisacsh Comedy films United States History and criticism Hysteria in motion pictures Laughter in motion pictures Motion pictures United States History 20th century Women in motion pictures https://doi.org/10.7312/henn21328 Verlag URL des Erstveröffentlichers Volltext |
| spellingShingle | Hennefeld, Maggie Death by Laughter Female Hysteria and Early Cinema PERFORMING ARTS / Film & Video / History & Criticism bisacsh Comedy films United States History and criticism Hysteria in motion pictures Laughter in motion pictures Motion pictures United States History 20th century Women in motion pictures |
| title | Death by Laughter Female Hysteria and Early Cinema |
| title_auth | Death by Laughter Female Hysteria and Early Cinema |
| title_exact_search | Death by Laughter Female Hysteria and Early Cinema |
| title_full | Death by Laughter Female Hysteria and Early Cinema Maggie Hennefeld |
| title_fullStr | Death by Laughter Female Hysteria and Early Cinema Maggie Hennefeld |
| title_full_unstemmed | Death by Laughter Female Hysteria and Early Cinema Maggie Hennefeld |
| title_short | Death by Laughter |
| title_sort | death by laughter female hysteria and early cinema |
| title_sub | Female Hysteria and Early Cinema |
| topic | PERFORMING ARTS / Film & Video / History & Criticism bisacsh Comedy films United States History and criticism Hysteria in motion pictures Laughter in motion pictures Motion pictures United States History 20th century Women in motion pictures |
| topic_facet | PERFORMING ARTS / Film & Video / History & Criticism Comedy films United States History and criticism Hysteria in motion pictures Laughter in motion pictures Motion pictures United States History 20th century Women in motion pictures |
| url | https://doi.org/10.7312/henn21328 |
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