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UNDERMINING COMMON SENSE: RACIAL LEGISLATION, COMEDY, AND
THE FAMILY
by
Michael Joseph Miklos
____________________________________________________________________
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(ENGLISH)
May 2007
Copyright 2007 Michael Joseph Miklos
Object Description
| Title | Undermining common sense: racial legislation, comedy, and the family |
| Author | Miklos, Michael Joseph |
| Author email | miklos@usc.edu |
| Degree | Doctor of Philosophy |
| Document type | Dissertation |
| Degree program | English |
| School | College of Letters, Arts and Sciences |
| Date defended/completed | 2007 |
| Date submitted | 2007 |
| Restricted until | Unrestricted |
| Date published | 2007-02-15 |
| Advisor (committee chair) | Kincaid, James R. |
| Advisor (committee member) |
Gambrell, Alice Diaz, Roberto Ignacio |
| Abstract | This dissertation investigates the relationship between legal and comedic discourse of the racialized family. Historically, legal sanctions have restricted who could marry whom, shaping what Americans and American families have looked like by determining whose genes could merge with whose. Experiences within and between families have provided fodder for comedians, whose material has reached wide audiences, serving as a normalizing discourse and as a record of families' day-to-day operations. Revolving around discontent, tensions, and even danger within families, comedy has revealed a sharp distinction between legal discourse about the family and everyday experiences within families, I contend. What matters for those who preach about the sanctity of family is not the health of individuals or the quality of familial relationships, but the value system which benefit most from the perpetuation of that institution.; I go about making this argument by citing how common sense served as the guiding light in determining who was white and thus able to naturalize in a series of Supreme Court rulings, even when common sense was contradicted by science. In an era when anti-miscegenation laws were still valid and when the privileges and immunities guaranteed by citizenship were denied to so many, these restrictions on who could naturalize are of utmost importance. Relying most heavily on Mark Twain's Pudd'nhead Wilson, Richard Pryor's stand-up comedy, To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything! Julie Newmar, and John Leguizamo's Spic-O-Rama, I attempt to show how comedy can reveal the shortcomings of common sense views about the family -- that restricting who could marry whom on the basis of race has done little to help individuals, with families being so traumatizing (and even deadly) at times. In each of these texts, families fail to live up to the ideal notion of the family as an institution, oppressing their members, especially women and children; yet the institution of the family lives on. In that sense, the language of protecting the family has been just that -- language; any real attempt to protect the family needs to protect the individuals who comprise families. Without such protections, families willcontinue to be a major source of comedy as comedians attempt to make sense of their own experiences. |
| Keyword | comedy; humor; race; racism; race laws; Twain, Mark; Pryor, Richard; To Wong Foo, thanks for everything! Julie Newmar; Leguizamo, John |
| Language | English |
| Part of collection | University of Southern California dissertations and theses |
| Publisher (of the original version) | University of Southern California |
| Place of publication (of the original version) | Los Angeles, California |
| Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California. Libraries |
| Type | texts |
| Legacy record ID | usctheses-m267 |
| Rights | Miklos, Michael Joseph |
| Repository name | Libraries, University of Southern California |
| Repository address | Los Angeles, California |
| Repository email | http://www.usc.edu/isd/libraries/services/ask_a_librarian/email/ |
| Filename | etd-Miklos-20070215 |
| Archival file | uscthesesreloadpub_Volume32/etd-Miklos-20070215.pdf |
Description
| Title | Page 1 |
| Full text | UNDERMINING COMMON SENSE: RACIAL LEGISLATION, COMEDY, AND THE FAMILY by Michael Joseph Miklos ____________________________________________________________________ A Dissertation Presented to the FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (ENGLISH) May 2007 Copyright 2007 Michael Joseph Miklos |
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