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Incorrigibles and Innocents
Constructing Childhood and Citizenship in Progressive Era Comics
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Lara Saguisag
Language:
English
Published/Copyright:
2019
About this book
Nominated for Eisner Award | Winner of the 2018 Ray and Pat Browne Award | Winner of the Charles Hatfield Book Prize from the CSS
Histories and criticism of comics note that comic strips published in the Progressive Era were dynamic spaces in which anxieties about race, ethnicity, class, and gender were expressed, perpetuated, and alleviated. The proliferation of comic strip children—white and nonwhite, middle-class and lower class, male and female—suggests that childhood was a subject that fascinated and preoccupied Americans at the turn of the century. Many of these strips, including R.F. Outcault’s Hogan’s Alley and Buster Brown, Rudolph Dirks’s The Katzenjammer Kids and Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo in Slumberland were headlined by child characters. Yet no major study has explored the significance of these verbal-visual representations of childhood. Incorrigibles and Innocents addresses this gap in scholarship, examining the ways childhood was depicted and theorized in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century comic strips. Drawing from and building on histories and theories of childhood, comics, and Progressive Era conceptualizations of citizenship and nationhood, Lara Saguisag demonstrates that child characters in comic strips expressed and complicated contemporary notions of who had a right to claim membership in a modernizing, expanding nation.
Histories and criticism of comics note that comic strips published in the Progressive Era were dynamic spaces in which anxieties about race, ethnicity, class, and gender were expressed, perpetuated, and alleviated. The proliferation of comic strip children—white and nonwhite, middle-class and lower class, male and female—suggests that childhood was a subject that fascinated and preoccupied Americans at the turn of the century. Many of these strips, including R.F. Outcault’s Hogan’s Alley and Buster Brown, Rudolph Dirks’s The Katzenjammer Kids and Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo in Slumberland were headlined by child characters. Yet no major study has explored the significance of these verbal-visual representations of childhood. Incorrigibles and Innocents addresses this gap in scholarship, examining the ways childhood was depicted and theorized in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century comic strips. Drawing from and building on histories and theories of childhood, comics, and Progressive Era conceptualizations of citizenship and nationhood, Lara Saguisag demonstrates that child characters in comic strips expressed and complicated contemporary notions of who had a right to claim membership in a modernizing, expanding nation.
Author / Editor information
LARA SAGUISAG is an assistant professor of English at the College of Staten Island–City University of New York. She is the author of several children’s books, such as Children of Two Seasons: Poems for Young People.
Reviews
"Incorrigibles and Innocents provides an exciting model for many more reevaluations of familiar texts in comic studies. It also challenges scholars to read these popular texts in the context of the myriad other, and less known, newspaper strips or comic book series to get a true sense of the reach of the ideas and assumptions that shaped consumer and political cultures of the past."
— H-Net"Incorrigibles and Innocents is an original and welcome addition to both childhood studies and comics studies. Saguisag demonstrates that for these fields to reach their full potential, they must better account for each other."
— The Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth“Historians have too long ignored comic strips as source material. Lara Saguisag impeccably unpacks kid comic strips to reveal their complex discourse on childhood and citizenship in Progressive Era America.”
— Ian Gordon, author of Superman: The Persistence of an American Icon
— Chronicle of Higher Education
— Chronicle of Higher Education
"Saguisag’s Incorrigibles offers both a welcome glimpse into the untapped potential of early newspaper comics and an invitation to keep reading more."
— Inks: Journal of the Comics Studies Society“Amazing work—an invaluable contribution to scholarship at the crossroads of comics studies, childhood studies, children’s literature, and cultural and political history. I wish I had written Incorrigibles and Innocents myself—and it will definitely be in my classrooms going forward!”
— Charles Hatfield, author of Hand of Fire: The Comics Art of Jack Kirby"Gives a thought-provoking discussion of race, nation, gender, citizenship, and the child....Saguisag’s work in this monograph is salient and thorough. Not only this, but Saguisag’s writing is accessible, sharp, and engaging. She clearly charts the political lineages of these comics from the nineteenth century to today. In doing so, she opens avenues for scholars of many different areas within children’s literature or adjacent fields to engage with her research."
— Research on Diversity in Youth Literature"Saguisag attends rigorously to the manifold cultural, political, and economic dimensions of Progressive Era America."
— Journal of Graphic Novels and ComicsTopics
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Frontmatter
i -
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CONTENTS
vii -
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INTRODUCTION
1 -
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Chapter 1. FOREIGN YET FAMILIAR
24 -
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Chapter 2. CROSSING THE COLOR LINE
52 -
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Chapter 3. FAMILY AMUSEMENTS
84 -
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Chapter 4. THE “SECRET TRACTS” OF THE CHILD’S MIND
114 -
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Chapter 5. WHAT WOULD YOU DO WITH GIRLS LIKE THESE?
142 -
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CONCLUSION. Naughty Boys in a New Millennium
175 -
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
187 -
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NOTES
191 -
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
219 -
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INDEX
229 -
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
237
Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
September 2, 2019
eBook ISBN:
9780813591803
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook ISBN:
9780813591803
Keywords for this book
comics; childhood; citizenship; Progressive Era; The Yellow Kid; Buster Brown; The Katzen jammer kids; little nemo in slumberland; little ah sid; jap \"It\"; made the magician's daughter; betsy bouncer and her doll; comic books; graphic novels; comic strips; race and ethnic studies; film; media studies; communications; childhood studies; comics studies; pop culture; popular culture; cultural studies; gender studies; social science; u.s. history; us history; united states history; american history; 20th century history; social history; literary criticism; eisner award; eisner award nominee; winner; award-winner; award-winning; nonfiction book awards; books with awards; Ray and Pat Browne Award; Charles Hatfield Book Prize; CSS; R.F. Outcault; Hogan's Alley; The Katzenjammer Kids; Winsor McCay; Rudolph Dirk
Audience(s) for this book
For universities and colleges of further and higher education
