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OverviewBlack women comedians are more visible than ever, performing around the world in physical venues like comedy clubs and festivals, along with appearing in films, streaming specials, and online videos. Across these mediums, humor, and particularly sass, functions as a tool for Black women to articulate and redress cultural, social, and political marginalization. J Finley theorizes sass as a new critical lens to better understand the power of Black women's humor and humanity, and how sass functions as a powerful resource in Black women's expressive repertoire. Challenging mainstream assumptions about """"sassiness"""" as an identity or personality trait to which Black women humorists may be reduced, Finley instead deploys sass to create a new genre of discourse for understanding the ways in which Black women use language, style, gesture, and intent to produce meaning—often humorous—in speaking back to authority. Grounded in an ethnographic approach to Black women's experiences, Finley conducted extensive interviews as well as participant-observation as a critic, audience member, and comic herself to collect and honor the stories that Black women comics tell about themselves. Interdisciplinary and conceptually rigorous, Finley's work shows us how we can and should read Black women's expressions of sass in humor as attempts at social transformation that involve a fundamental critique of power and authority, and a gesture at collective liberation. Full Product DetailsAuthor: J FinleyPublisher: The University of North Carolina Press Imprint: The University of North Carolina Press ISBN: 9781469680019ISBN 10: 1469680017 Pages: 234 Publication Date: 13 August 2024 Audience: College/higher education , Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly Format: Hardback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: In Print This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us. Table of ContentsReviews"Nuanced and creative . . . . an enlightening and rigorous examination of sass as a means of asserting one's power in an oppressive world. It's an insightful study of the politics of humor.""--Publishers Weekly" Author InformationJ Finley is associate professor of Africana studies at Pomona College. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |