Abstract
Anne-Marie Evans explores the relationship between transgressive humor and popular feminism in the autobiographical writings of four contemporary American comediennes: Lena Dunham, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and Mindy Kaling. Much of their humor stems from questioning the double standard, and all of them have championed women’s causes in their roles as public figures. This chapter seeks to challenge some of the assumptions about popular female autobiography by suggesting that these memoirs actually fulfill an important function in terms of women’s writing, not only as a source of humor, but primarily as a vehicle for social criticism. Focusing on their successful self-fashioning, this chapter uses contemporary feminist theoretical writing to argue that women’s autobiography offers an essential space for transgressive forms of humor.
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Evans, AM. (2017). Funny Women: Political Transgressions and Celebrity Autobiography. In: Fuchs Abrams, S. (eds) Transgressive Humor of American Women Writers. Palgrave Studies in Comedy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56729-7_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56729-7_9
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