Includes bibliographical references (pages 182-198) and index.
Contents:
Introduction. Character studies: the Peanuts gang, reconsidered -- "Sometimes my hand shakes so much I have to hold my wrist to draw": Charles M. Schulz and disability -- What's the frequency, Charlie Brown?: sound waves, music, and the zigzag shirt -- "Why can't I have normal dog like everyone else?": Snoopy as canine -- and feline -- I love Lucy: the fussbudget and the first lady of sitcoms -- Franklin and Pig-Pen: the aesthetics of Blackness and dirt -- Chirping 'bout my generation: Woodstock, youth culture, and innocence -- Epilogue. Peanuts to watch out for: Linus Van Pelt, Alison Bechdel, and the legacy of Charles M. Schulz.
Summary:
"Blockheads, Beagles, and Sweet Babboos: New Perspectives on Charles M. Schulz's "Peanuts" sheds new light on the past importance, ongoing significance, and future relevance of a comics series that millions adore: Charles M. Schulz's Peanuts. More specifically, it examines a fundamental feature of the series: its core cast of characters. In chapters devoted to Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy, Franklin, Pigpen, Woodstock, and Linus, author Michelle Ann Abate explores the figures who made Schulz's strip so successful, so influential, and-above all-so beloved. In so doing, the book gives these iconic figures the in-depth critical attention that they deserve and are long overdue. Abate considers the exceedingly familiar characters from Peanuts in markedly unfamiliar ways. Drawing on a wide array of interpretive lenses, Blockheads, Beagles, and Sweet Babboos invites readers to revisit, reexamine, and rethink characters that have been household names for generations. Through this process, the chapters not only demonstrate how Schulz's work remains a subject of acute critical interest more than twenty years after the final strip appeared, but also how it embodies a rich and fertile site of social, cultural, and political meaning"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.