Awkward Appendages: Comic Umbrellas in Nineteenth-Century Print Culture

Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review

Standard

Awkward Appendages: Comic Umbrellas in Nineteenth-Century Print Culture. / Damkjær, Maria.

In: Victorian Literature and Culture, Vol. 45, No. 3, 30.08.2017, p. 475-492.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review

Harvard

Damkjær, M 2017, 'Awkward Appendages: Comic Umbrellas in Nineteenth-Century Print Culture', Victorian Literature and Culture, vol. 45, no. 3, pp. 475-492.

APA

Damkjær, M. (2017). Awkward Appendages: Comic Umbrellas in Nineteenth-Century Print Culture. Victorian Literature and Culture, 45(3), 475-492.

Vancouver

Damkjær M. Awkward Appendages: Comic Umbrellas in Nineteenth-Century Print Culture. Victorian Literature and Culture. 2017 Aug 30;45(3):475-492.

Author

Damkjær, Maria. / Awkward Appendages: Comic Umbrellas in Nineteenth-Century Print Culture. In: Victorian Literature and Culture. 2017 ; Vol. 45, No. 3. pp. 475-492.

Bibtex

@article{a77c30013ed84610b3fca0e1a646bb82,
title = "Awkward Appendages: Comic Umbrellas in Nineteenth-Century Print Culture",
abstract = "In nineteenth-century comic writing, the umbrella represents a troublesome material world: umbrellas were always threatening to break, flip inside out or to disappear and reappear in the most mysterious fashion. The umbrella was a trope for oddness, resistance and perversity of intent. With the help of Alenka Zupan{\v c}i{\v c}{\textquoteright}s theory of comedy, this article argues that the umbrella in the cultural imagination marks an unreliable world of signs. Umbrellas, with their troublesome peripatetic nature, become arbiters of human destiny. Comic writers, including Robert Louis Stevenson in {\textquoteleft}The Philosophy of Umbrellas{\textquoteright} (1871), claim that umbrellas are repositories of democratic personhood. But since umbrellas are supremely alienable, their owners remain mere placeholders of identity. Umbrella comedy plays with the idea that modern personhood is contained in a near-arbitrary and perverse system of signs.",
keywords = "Faculty of Humanities, Umbrellas, print culture, periodicals, humour, comedy, Victorian, nineteenth century, comedy theory, Alenka Zupancic, democracy, Identity construction, material culture",
author = "Maria Damkj{\ae}r",
year = "2017",
month = aug,
day = "30",
language = "English",
volume = "45",
pages = "475--492",
journal = "Victorian Literature and Culture",
issn = "1060-1503",
publisher = "Cambridge University Press",
number = "3",

}

RIS

TY - JOUR

T1 - Awkward Appendages: Comic Umbrellas in Nineteenth-Century Print Culture

AU - Damkjær, Maria

PY - 2017/8/30

Y1 - 2017/8/30

N2 - In nineteenth-century comic writing, the umbrella represents a troublesome material world: umbrellas were always threatening to break, flip inside out or to disappear and reappear in the most mysterious fashion. The umbrella was a trope for oddness, resistance and perversity of intent. With the help of Alenka Zupančič’s theory of comedy, this article argues that the umbrella in the cultural imagination marks an unreliable world of signs. Umbrellas, with their troublesome peripatetic nature, become arbiters of human destiny. Comic writers, including Robert Louis Stevenson in ‘The Philosophy of Umbrellas’ (1871), claim that umbrellas are repositories of democratic personhood. But since umbrellas are supremely alienable, their owners remain mere placeholders of identity. Umbrella comedy plays with the idea that modern personhood is contained in a near-arbitrary and perverse system of signs.

AB - In nineteenth-century comic writing, the umbrella represents a troublesome material world: umbrellas were always threatening to break, flip inside out or to disappear and reappear in the most mysterious fashion. The umbrella was a trope for oddness, resistance and perversity of intent. With the help of Alenka Zupančič’s theory of comedy, this article argues that the umbrella in the cultural imagination marks an unreliable world of signs. Umbrellas, with their troublesome peripatetic nature, become arbiters of human destiny. Comic writers, including Robert Louis Stevenson in ‘The Philosophy of Umbrellas’ (1871), claim that umbrellas are repositories of democratic personhood. But since umbrellas are supremely alienable, their owners remain mere placeholders of identity. Umbrella comedy plays with the idea that modern personhood is contained in a near-arbitrary and perverse system of signs.

KW - Faculty of Humanities

KW - Umbrellas

KW - print culture

KW - periodicals

KW - humour

KW - comedy

KW - Victorian

KW - nineteenth century

KW - comedy theory

KW - Alenka Zupancic

KW - democracy

KW - Identity construction

KW - material culture

UR - https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/victorian-literature-and-culture/article/awkward-appendages-comic-umbrellas-in-nineteenthcentury-print-culture/775AA6C68C592A992FE6E5D02583E6D0

M3 - Journal article

VL - 45

SP - 475

EP - 492

JO - Victorian Literature and Culture

JF - Victorian Literature and Culture

SN - 1060-1503

IS - 3

ER -

ID: 160575082