Jean Lee Cole | Loyola University Maryland (original) (raw)
Books by Jean Lee Cole
Taking up the role of laughter in society, How the Other Half Laughs: The Comic Sensibility in Am... more Taking up the role of laughter in society, How the Other Half Laughs: The Comic Sensibility in American Culture, 1895–1920 examines an era in which the US population was becoming increasingly multiethnic and multiracial. Comic artists and writers, hoping to create works that would appeal to a diverse audience, had to formulate a method for making the “other half” laugh. In magazine fiction, vaudeville, and the comic strip, the oppressive conditions of the poor and the marginalized were portrayed unflinchingly, yet with a distinctly comic sensibility that grew out of caricature and ethnic humor.
Author Jean Lee Cole analyzes Progressive Era popular culture, providing a critical angle to approach visual and literary humor about ethnicity—how avenues of comedy serve as expressions of solidarity, commiseration, and empowerment. Cole’s argument centers on the comic sensibility, which she defines as a performative act that fosters feelings of solidarity and community among the marginalized.
Cole stresses the connections between the worlds of art, journalism, and literature and the people who produced them—including George Herriman, R. F. Outcault, Rudolph Dirks, Jimmy Swinnerton, George Luks, and William Glackens—and traces the form’s emergence in the pages of Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World and William Randolph Hearst’s Journal-American and how it influenced popular fiction, illustration, and art. How the Other Half Laughs restores the newspaper comic strip to its rightful place as a transformative element of American culture at the turn into the twentieth century.
For over fifty years, members of the Woman's Literary Club of Baltimore met every Tuesday afterno... more For over fifty years, members of the Woman's Literary Club of Baltimore met every Tuesday afternoon between October and May to share their writing with the goal of getting it into print. And how they succeeded. Between 1890-1941, over a thousand publications emerged from the members of the WLCB. Their novels and historical works appeared in the catalogues of the nation's most respected publishers; their poems and stories filled the pages of magazines including Harper's, the Atlantic, and Ladies' Home Journal. Their plays were performed in Baltimore, in Washington, DC, and even on Broadway.
Yet in less than one hundred years, this astounding group of women--and their writings--have been all but forgotten, the result of changing literary tastes and the establishment of a male-dominated literary canon. This volume gives them new pride of place. Parole Femine: Words and Lives of the Woman's Literary Club of Baltimore is organized thematically and includes over a hundred works from all of the published authors of the Club active between 1890-1920. This rich sampling of writings by Baltimore women at the turn of the twentieth century reveals wide-ranging intellect, interests, and social and political investments that are held together by a common local perspective; it shows that Baltimore literary culture did not exist solely in the smoky clubs, restaurants, and newspaper offices frequented by the likes of Edgar Allan Poe, H. L. Mencken, and F. Scott Fitzgerald.
The Maryland state motto is "fatti maschii, parole femine" manly deeds, womanly words. This anthology restores womanly words to Baltimore cultural history.
Parole Femine: Words and Lives of the Woman's Literary Club of Baltimore was collected and edited by a team of undergraduate students at Loyola University Maryland. Professor Jean Lee Cole, Department of English, leads the project, which includes this anthology and the Woman's Literary Club of Baltimore Online Archive at http: //loyolanotredamelib.org/Aperio/WLCB/.
The file includes uncorrected page proofs. If you are using this book for a course, please consid... more The file includes uncorrected page proofs. If you are using this book for a course, please consider adopting the book so that we can keep this work in print. Or, at least ask your library to purchase it.
Note: as of May 1, 2016, I am no longer offering the complete set of proofs for download. Only the introduction and two chapters will be included. Thank you for your interest in Turner!
Papers by Jean Lee Cole
Presented at Transnational Periodical Studies conference at Johannes Gutenberg University-Mainz, ... more Presented at Transnational Periodical Studies conference at Johannes Gutenberg University-Mainz, Jan. 30, 2020.
On the challenges facing Editors of a Certain Age in C21 in the age of digitization-- and what we... more On the challenges facing Editors of a Certain Age in C21 in the age of digitization-- and what we might be losing.
Freddie Gray was kind of my neighbor. And I found myself responding to his death as a neighbor. A... more Freddie Gray was kind of my neighbor. And I found myself responding to his death as a neighbor. As a neighbor, and kind of by accident, as an activist. Which all ends up leading to Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience" and thoughts on what it means to be a counter-friction against the machine. This essay was solicited as part of a roundtable on responses to Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience" following events in Ferguson, MO. The version uploaded here corrects formatting problems in the print version.
Description of a magazine-based assignment used for an American literature survey course, taught ... more Description of a magazine-based assignment used for an American literature survey course, taught at a university without archival/special collections, published in Teaching Bibliography, Textual Criticism, and Book History, ed. Ann R. Hawkins (Pickering & Chatto, 2006).
Public scholarship by Jean Lee Cole
The Home Weekly, published by the children of Asbury and Jennie Davis and Gideon Stieff, scion of... more The Home Weekly, published by the children of Asbury and Jennie Davis and Gideon Stieff, scion of Baltimore's Stieff Silver family between 1907-1910, was a handwritten amateur newspaper that displays the creative ambition and with of the youthful members of Baltimore's elite in the early twentieth century. The 1908 Christmas issue is included in its entirety, with color full-page images. Published in the Bolton Hill Bulletin on Dec. 2, 2016.
On the 45th anniversary of the Bolton Hill Bulletin, neighborhood newsletter for Bolton Hill, his... more On the 45th anniversary of the Bolton Hill Bulletin, neighborhood newsletter for Bolton Hill, historic district in Baltimore, MD, this piece in the online Bulletin published on Jan. 29, 2016 takes a look back at how one Baltimore neighborhood fought to maintain its identity, attract new residents, and celebrate City life in the wake of the white flight that followed the Baltimore riots of 1968.
In my 4th podcast for EN 101 Understanding Lit, I focus on poetry based on syllable counts and so... more In my 4th podcast for EN 101 Understanding Lit, I focus on poetry based on syllable counts and sound units. First I talk about the cultural specificity of the haiku as well as how the content is structured in the poem, and then turn to the tanka, which has a history similar to that of the sonnet but also was used as an expression of protest and resistance by Japanese Americans during and after internment. (8 min.)
In podcast #3 for the formal poetry unit of EN 101 Understanding Literature, I introduce repetiti... more In podcast #3 for the formal poetry unit of EN 101 Understanding Literature, I introduce repetition-based forms, including the pantoum—centering on Natasha Trethewey's "Incident." (5 min.)
Podcast for EN 101 Understanding Literature--each week I get under the hood of a poem and see wha... more Podcast for EN 101 Understanding Literature--each week I get under the hood of a poem and see what makes it work, focusing on formal characteristics, the history of the form, its social context, and intended audience. This week: sonnets—featuring a great one by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, two bad ones by me, and another bad one by Billy Collins. Which is better than nothing. (10 min.)
Podcast for EN 101 Understanding Literature--each week I get under the hood of a poem and see wha... more Podcast for EN 101 Understanding Literature--each week I get under the hood of a poem and see what makes it work, focusing on formal characteristics, the history of the form, its social context, and intended audience. (5 min.)
Taking up the role of laughter in society, How the Other Half Laughs: The Comic Sensibility in Am... more Taking up the role of laughter in society, How the Other Half Laughs: The Comic Sensibility in American Culture, 1895–1920 examines an era in which the US population was becoming increasingly multiethnic and multiracial. Comic artists and writers, hoping to create works that would appeal to a diverse audience, had to formulate a method for making the “other half” laugh. In magazine fiction, vaudeville, and the comic strip, the oppressive conditions of the poor and the marginalized were portrayed unflinchingly, yet with a distinctly comic sensibility that grew out of caricature and ethnic humor.
Author Jean Lee Cole analyzes Progressive Era popular culture, providing a critical angle to approach visual and literary humor about ethnicity—how avenues of comedy serve as expressions of solidarity, commiseration, and empowerment. Cole’s argument centers on the comic sensibility, which she defines as a performative act that fosters feelings of solidarity and community among the marginalized.
Cole stresses the connections between the worlds of art, journalism, and literature and the people who produced them—including George Herriman, R. F. Outcault, Rudolph Dirks, Jimmy Swinnerton, George Luks, and William Glackens—and traces the form’s emergence in the pages of Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World and William Randolph Hearst’s Journal-American and how it influenced popular fiction, illustration, and art. How the Other Half Laughs restores the newspaper comic strip to its rightful place as a transformative element of American culture at the turn into the twentieth century.
For over fifty years, members of the Woman's Literary Club of Baltimore met every Tuesday afterno... more For over fifty years, members of the Woman's Literary Club of Baltimore met every Tuesday afternoon between October and May to share their writing with the goal of getting it into print. And how they succeeded. Between 1890-1941, over a thousand publications emerged from the members of the WLCB. Their novels and historical works appeared in the catalogues of the nation's most respected publishers; their poems and stories filled the pages of magazines including Harper's, the Atlantic, and Ladies' Home Journal. Their plays were performed in Baltimore, in Washington, DC, and even on Broadway.
Yet in less than one hundred years, this astounding group of women--and their writings--have been all but forgotten, the result of changing literary tastes and the establishment of a male-dominated literary canon. This volume gives them new pride of place. Parole Femine: Words and Lives of the Woman's Literary Club of Baltimore is organized thematically and includes over a hundred works from all of the published authors of the Club active between 1890-1920. This rich sampling of writings by Baltimore women at the turn of the twentieth century reveals wide-ranging intellect, interests, and social and political investments that are held together by a common local perspective; it shows that Baltimore literary culture did not exist solely in the smoky clubs, restaurants, and newspaper offices frequented by the likes of Edgar Allan Poe, H. L. Mencken, and F. Scott Fitzgerald.
The Maryland state motto is "fatti maschii, parole femine" manly deeds, womanly words. This anthology restores womanly words to Baltimore cultural history.
Parole Femine: Words and Lives of the Woman's Literary Club of Baltimore was collected and edited by a team of undergraduate students at Loyola University Maryland. Professor Jean Lee Cole, Department of English, leads the project, which includes this anthology and the Woman's Literary Club of Baltimore Online Archive at http: //loyolanotredamelib.org/Aperio/WLCB/.
The file includes uncorrected page proofs. If you are using this book for a course, please consid... more The file includes uncorrected page proofs. If you are using this book for a course, please consider adopting the book so that we can keep this work in print. Or, at least ask your library to purchase it.
Note: as of May 1, 2016, I am no longer offering the complete set of proofs for download. Only the introduction and two chapters will be included. Thank you for your interest in Turner!
Presented at Transnational Periodical Studies conference at Johannes Gutenberg University-Mainz, ... more Presented at Transnational Periodical Studies conference at Johannes Gutenberg University-Mainz, Jan. 30, 2020.
On the challenges facing Editors of a Certain Age in C21 in the age of digitization-- and what we... more On the challenges facing Editors of a Certain Age in C21 in the age of digitization-- and what we might be losing.
Freddie Gray was kind of my neighbor. And I found myself responding to his death as a neighbor. A... more Freddie Gray was kind of my neighbor. And I found myself responding to his death as a neighbor. As a neighbor, and kind of by accident, as an activist. Which all ends up leading to Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience" and thoughts on what it means to be a counter-friction against the machine. This essay was solicited as part of a roundtable on responses to Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience" following events in Ferguson, MO. The version uploaded here corrects formatting problems in the print version.
Description of a magazine-based assignment used for an American literature survey course, taught ... more Description of a magazine-based assignment used for an American literature survey course, taught at a university without archival/special collections, published in Teaching Bibliography, Textual Criticism, and Book History, ed. Ann R. Hawkins (Pickering & Chatto, 2006).
The Home Weekly, published by the children of Asbury and Jennie Davis and Gideon Stieff, scion of... more The Home Weekly, published by the children of Asbury and Jennie Davis and Gideon Stieff, scion of Baltimore's Stieff Silver family between 1907-1910, was a handwritten amateur newspaper that displays the creative ambition and with of the youthful members of Baltimore's elite in the early twentieth century. The 1908 Christmas issue is included in its entirety, with color full-page images. Published in the Bolton Hill Bulletin on Dec. 2, 2016.
On the 45th anniversary of the Bolton Hill Bulletin, neighborhood newsletter for Bolton Hill, his... more On the 45th anniversary of the Bolton Hill Bulletin, neighborhood newsletter for Bolton Hill, historic district in Baltimore, MD, this piece in the online Bulletin published on Jan. 29, 2016 takes a look back at how one Baltimore neighborhood fought to maintain its identity, attract new residents, and celebrate City life in the wake of the white flight that followed the Baltimore riots of 1968.
In my 4th podcast for EN 101 Understanding Lit, I focus on poetry based on syllable counts and so... more In my 4th podcast for EN 101 Understanding Lit, I focus on poetry based on syllable counts and sound units. First I talk about the cultural specificity of the haiku as well as how the content is structured in the poem, and then turn to the tanka, which has a history similar to that of the sonnet but also was used as an expression of protest and resistance by Japanese Americans during and after internment. (8 min.)
In podcast #3 for the formal poetry unit of EN 101 Understanding Literature, I introduce repetiti... more In podcast #3 for the formal poetry unit of EN 101 Understanding Literature, I introduce repetition-based forms, including the pantoum—centering on Natasha Trethewey's "Incident." (5 min.)
Podcast for EN 101 Understanding Literature--each week I get under the hood of a poem and see wha... more Podcast for EN 101 Understanding Literature--each week I get under the hood of a poem and see what makes it work, focusing on formal characteristics, the history of the form, its social context, and intended audience. This week: sonnets—featuring a great one by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, two bad ones by me, and another bad one by Billy Collins. Which is better than nothing. (10 min.)
Podcast for EN 101 Understanding Literature--each week I get under the hood of a poem and see wha... more Podcast for EN 101 Understanding Literature--each week I get under the hood of a poem and see what makes it work, focusing on formal characteristics, the history of the form, its social context, and intended audience. (5 min.)
Multimedia, geolocated tour of Baltimore booksellers from 1800 to the present, sponsored by the M... more Multimedia, geolocated tour of Baltimore booksellers from 1800 to the present, sponsored by the MuseWeb Foundation's Be Here: Baltimore project. Website viewable on browser; created for the izi.TRAVEL app.
Playlist featuring audio and selected images from "Baltimore, Then and Now" multimedia geolocated... more Playlist featuring audio and selected images from "Baltimore, Then and Now" multimedia geolocated tour on izi.TRAVEL app/website.
Talk given in acceptance of the Loyola Center for Humanities Nachbahr Award for achievement in sc... more Talk given in acceptance of the Loyola Center for Humanities Nachbahr Award for achievement in scholarship, Oct. 7, 2017. Video available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gLS_08kb4E
In this talk given at the 2006 MLA, I outline problems encountered by editors of "recovered" text... more In this talk given at the 2006 MLA, I outline problems encountered by editors of "recovered" texts-- in particular, the tension between the desire to preserve the historical document that contains the recovered text, and a text that can be easily read by non-specialists (i.e., students who will buy books and make the edition financially viable). I examine questions and problems posed by various recovery editions produced by Henry Louis Gates before describing the editorial process undertaken by me and co-editor Charles Mitchell in our edition of The Collected Plays of Zora Neale Hurston.
In this 10-minute "Academic TED Talk" given at the Faculty Research Showcase at the Loyola-Notre ... more In this 10-minute "Academic TED Talk" given at the Faculty Research Showcase at the Loyola-Notre Dame Library on Feb. 20, 2015, I describe my discovery of Henry McNeal Turner in the pages of the Christian Recorder and the evolution of the book that became Freedom's Witness: The Civil War Correspondence of Henry McNeal Turner.
Keynote address for the 2014 Undergraduate Student Research and Scholarship Colloquium (USRSC) at... more Keynote address for the 2014 Undergraduate Student Research and Scholarship Colloquium (USRSC) at Loyola University Maryland, April 4, 2014.
In my keynote address presented at the Winnifred Eaton Symposium on March 15, 2007 (Mount Allison... more In my keynote address presented at the Winnifred Eaton Symposium on March 15, 2007 (Mount Allison University, New Brunswick, Canada; organized by Jennifer Harris), I examine the tensions between the racialized--and racist--book designs and the texts they housed, focusing on texts written by three nonwhite writers from the early twentieth century: the Asian Canadian writer Winnifred Eaton (who used the Japanese-sounding pseudonym Onoto Watanna), African American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, and African American fictionist Charles Chesnutt. I argue that these writers displayed a nuanced understanding of how their race was marketed through book design, focusing on Chesnutt's story "Baxter's Procrustes" (1904), Dunbar's "The Lookin' Glass" (1903), and Eaton's novel The Heart of Hyacinth (1903).
Journal of American Culture, 2014
Review by Lori Duin Kelly of Freedom's Witness: The Civil War Correspondence of Henry McNeal Turner
American Periodicals, 2014
Review of Freedom's Witness by Cynthia Patterson
Review of my book The Literary Voices of Winnifred Eaton: Redefining Ethnicity and Authenticity, ... more Review of my book The Literary Voices of Winnifred Eaton: Redefining Ethnicity and Authenticity, along with an edition of Anna Dickinson's 1868 novel Who Was His Father and Linda Trinh Moser & Elizabeth Rooney's edition of "A Half-Caste" and other Writings by Onoto Watanna. By Sarah Meer. Women: A Cultural Review 16.2 (2005): 242-245.