Comedy Gold: Humor on the Alaska-Yukon Border, 1886-1896
Abstract This article sketches a rough outline of ways humor and laughter were used in setting social boundaries along the Alaska-Yukon border in the decade before the Klondike gold rush (1896-1900). It maintains that humor possessed an extraordinary capacity to both collapse and sustain social hier...
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Language: | English |
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The Pennsylvania State University Press
2021
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.5325/studamerhumor.7.1.0086 https://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/psup/american-humor/article-pdf/7/1/86/1385074/studamerhumor_7_1_86.pdf |
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crpennstateupr:10.5325/studamerhumor.7.1.0086 2024-06-02T08:15:56+00:00 Comedy Gold: Humor on the Alaska-Yukon Border, 1886-1896 Petrakos, Christopher 2021 http://dx.doi.org/10.5325/studamerhumor.7.1.0086 https://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/psup/american-humor/article-pdf/7/1/86/1385074/studamerhumor_7_1_86.pdf en eng The Pennsylvania State University Press Studies in American Humor volume 7, issue 1, page 86-104 ISSN 0095-280X 2333-9934 journal-article 2021 crpennstateupr https://doi.org/10.5325/studamerhumor.7.1.0086 2024-05-07T14:14:46Z Abstract This article sketches a rough outline of ways humor and laughter were used in setting social boundaries along the Alaska-Yukon border in the decade before the Klondike gold rush (1896-1900). It maintains that humor possessed an extraordinary capacity to both collapse and sustain social hierarchies on the frontier—establishing in and out groups in the absence of any “official” state or national authority in the Far North, drawing on Mikhail Bakhtin's Rabelais and His World as a theoretical framework to analyze humor's capacity to establish togetherness and otherness. Frontiersmen, this article suggests, harnessed the leveling power of humor to create in-groups while deploying it against Indians and Black Americans to define otherness. Article in Journal/Newspaper Alaska Yukon Penn State University Press Yukon Studies in American Humor 7 1 86 |
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Penn State University Press |
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crpennstateupr |
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English |
description |
Abstract This article sketches a rough outline of ways humor and laughter were used in setting social boundaries along the Alaska-Yukon border in the decade before the Klondike gold rush (1896-1900). It maintains that humor possessed an extraordinary capacity to both collapse and sustain social hierarchies on the frontier—establishing in and out groups in the absence of any “official” state or national authority in the Far North, drawing on Mikhail Bakhtin's Rabelais and His World as a theoretical framework to analyze humor's capacity to establish togetherness and otherness. Frontiersmen, this article suggests, harnessed the leveling power of humor to create in-groups while deploying it against Indians and Black Americans to define otherness. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Petrakos, Christopher |
spellingShingle |
Petrakos, Christopher Comedy Gold: Humor on the Alaska-Yukon Border, 1886-1896 |
author_facet |
Petrakos, Christopher |
author_sort |
Petrakos, Christopher |
title |
Comedy Gold: Humor on the Alaska-Yukon Border, 1886-1896 |
title_short |
Comedy Gold: Humor on the Alaska-Yukon Border, 1886-1896 |
title_full |
Comedy Gold: Humor on the Alaska-Yukon Border, 1886-1896 |
title_fullStr |
Comedy Gold: Humor on the Alaska-Yukon Border, 1886-1896 |
title_full_unstemmed |
Comedy Gold: Humor on the Alaska-Yukon Border, 1886-1896 |
title_sort |
comedy gold: humor on the alaska-yukon border, 1886-1896 |
publisher |
The Pennsylvania State University Press |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.5325/studamerhumor.7.1.0086 https://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/psup/american-humor/article-pdf/7/1/86/1385074/studamerhumor_7_1_86.pdf |
geographic |
Yukon |
geographic_facet |
Yukon |
genre |
Alaska Yukon |
genre_facet |
Alaska Yukon |
op_source |
Studies in American Humor volume 7, issue 1, page 86-104 ISSN 0095-280X 2333-9934 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5325/studamerhumor.7.1.0086 |
container_title |
Studies in American Humor |
container_volume |
7 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
86 |
_version_ |
1800740253711990784 |