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Chapter 14. Newspaper funnies at the dawn of modernity

Multimodal humour in early American comic strips
  • Isabel Ermida
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Diachronic Developments in English News Discourse
This chapter is in the book Diachronic Developments in English News Discourse

Abstract

This article offers a model for the analysis of comics, focusing on a classic of American Sunday newspapers: Outcault’s The Yellow Kid. As an early form of Press humour, these strips provide lavish material for the analysis of multimodal discourse and at the same time lend themselves to a study of the sociocultural and ideological constitution of America at the emergence of modernity. The analytical model is a threefold framework covering structural elements (“modes”), sociological elements (“functions”) and semantic elements (“mechanisms”). With these interpretive tools, it is expected that the construction of humorous meaning, as well as the usage of various semiotic resources for amusement purposes, becomes clearer. Moreover, the article glimpses at the nature of late nineteenth-century American society, in its vibrant, yet challenging, evolution.

Abstract

This article offers a model for the analysis of comics, focusing on a classic of American Sunday newspapers: Outcault’s The Yellow Kid. As an early form of Press humour, these strips provide lavish material for the analysis of multimodal discourse and at the same time lend themselves to a study of the sociocultural and ideological constitution of America at the emergence of modernity. The analytical model is a threefold framework covering structural elements (“modes”), sociological elements (“functions”) and semantic elements (“mechanisms”). With these interpretive tools, it is expected that the construction of humorous meaning, as well as the usage of various semiotic resources for amusement purposes, becomes clearer. Moreover, the article glimpses at the nature of late nineteenth-century American society, in its vibrant, yet challenging, evolution.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface 1
  4. Chapter 1. English news discourse from newsbooks to new media 3
  5. Part I. Changing or maintaining conventions?
  6. Chapter 2. Of hopes and plans 15
  7. Chapter 3. Religious lexis and political ideology in English Civil War newsbooks 39
  8. Chapter 4. Contemporary observations on the attention value and selling power of English print advertisements (1700–1760) 61
  9. Chapter 5. A modest proposal in The Gentleman’s Magazine 81
  10. Chapter 6. Lexical bundles in news discourse 1784–1983 97
  11. Part II. Widening audiences
  12. Chapter 7. British popular newspaper traditions 119
  13. Chapter 8. The Poor Man’s Guardian 137
  14. Chapter 9. Diffusing political knowledge in illustrated magazines 157
  15. Chapter 10. From adverts to letters to the editor 175
  16. Chapter 11. The public identity of Jack the Ripper in late nineteenth-century British newspapers 199
  17. Part III. New practices
  18. Chapter 12. Narrative vs. “objective” style 219
  19. Chapter 13. Astride two worlds 241
  20. Chapter 14. Newspaper funnies at the dawn of modernity 267
  21. Index 295
https://doi.org/10.1075/ahs.6.14erm

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface 1
  4. Chapter 1. English news discourse from newsbooks to new media 3
  5. Part I. Changing or maintaining conventions?
  6. Chapter 2. Of hopes and plans 15
  7. Chapter 3. Religious lexis and political ideology in English Civil War newsbooks 39
  8. Chapter 4. Contemporary observations on the attention value and selling power of English print advertisements (1700–1760) 61
  9. Chapter 5. A modest proposal in The Gentleman’s Magazine 81
  10. Chapter 6. Lexical bundles in news discourse 1784–1983 97
  11. Part II. Widening audiences
  12. Chapter 7. British popular newspaper traditions 119
  13. Chapter 8. The Poor Man’s Guardian 137
  14. Chapter 9. Diffusing political knowledge in illustrated magazines 157
  15. Chapter 10. From adverts to letters to the editor 175
  16. Chapter 11. The public identity of Jack the Ripper in late nineteenth-century British newspapers 199
  17. Part III. New practices
  18. Chapter 12. Narrative vs. “objective” style 219
  19. Chapter 13. Astride two worlds 241
  20. Chapter 14. Newspaper funnies at the dawn of modernity 267
  21. Index 295
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