Academic texts about the Marx Brothers
Books and articles which have an academic view (in a broader sense) on the Marx Brothers and their work
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Bartolomé, A.I.; Cabrera, G.: The translation of audiovisual humour of the Marx Brothers in "Sopa de ganso"
(Category: Articles about the Marx Brothers, their movies, stage shows etc.)
("Sopa de ganso" = "Duck Soup")
Born, Simon: Die Marx Brothers und die Commedia dell'arte
(Category: Books about the Marx Brothers, their films etc.)
- (deutsch) Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, Baden-Baden, Germany, 2019, ISBN: 3 8487 5012 0 (ISBN-13: 9783848750122) Check availability (amazon*): |
Braun, Michael (Hrsg.), Jahraus, Oliver (Hrsg.), Neuhaus, Stefan (Hrsg.), Pesnel, Stéphane (Hrsg.): Komik im Film
(Category: Books and articles which have the Marx Brothers not as their main topic, but have a significant part about them)
Contains the chapter "Anarchische Komik im Film am Beispiel der Marx Brothers" by Stefan Neuhaus
- (deutsch) Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg, 2019, ISBN: 3 8260 6401 1 (ISBN-13: 9783826064012) Check availability (amazon*): |
Charney, Maurice: The Comic World of the Marx Brothers' Movies: Anything Further Father?
(Category: Books about the Marx Brothers, their films etc.)
The publisher advertises this book as "filling an academic void", but others have been there before. The most part of the book is taken up by giving synopsis of the movies. The author is looking at 15(!) Marx Brothers movies by including "Copacabana" and "Double Dynamite". He claims to have not been able to get a copy of "A Girl in Every Port", which is easily available outside the US. There are a few factual errors and typos and a lot of facts are repeated and some seem irrelevant. In general the author doesn't seems to be really interested in the Marx Brothers and the book doesn't add anything to an academic look at their work.
- Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, Madison, NJ, Sep 2007, ISBN: 0 8386 4124 5 (ISBN-13: 9780838641248) Check availability (amazon*): |
Chesler, Judd: Toward a Surrealist Film Aesthetic with an Investigation into the Elements of Surrealism in the Marx Brothers and Jean Vigo
(Category: Books and articles which have the Marx Brothers not as their main topic, but have a significant part about them)
Ph.D. thesis
Cipa, Matthew: Is Harpo Free? - And Other Questions of the Metaphysical Screen
(Category: Books and articles which mention the Marx Brothers in a larger context)
From the publisher: "'Is Harpo Free?' is a lively appreciation of film and television's ability to artistically explore concepts typical of philosophical metaphysics, such as free will, causality, and personal identity. [...] the book [...] celebrates the artistic ways in which they give life to various metaphysical concepts and how the artistic expression of these concepts and ideas helps us understand ourselves, the world, and our place within it. [...] Films and television programs discussed include 'A Night at the Opera'; 'Run, Lola, Run'; 'Shane'; 'Harvey'; 'Three Colours: Blue'; 'The Americans'; 'Dark'; and 'Fargo'."
- SUNY Press, New York, 2024, ISBN: 1 438 49735 0 (ISBN-13: 9781438497358) / (hardcover) Check availability (amazon*): |
Coniam, Matthew: The Annotated Marx Brothers - A Filmgoer's Guide to In-Jokes, Obscure References and Sly Details
(Category: Books about the Marx Brothers, their films etc.)
There are lots of scenes in the movies which we nowadays cannot fully understand because they refer to people or events who were well known at the time of filming. Matthew has put together a great collection of material which helps us to understand what is really going on.
- McFarland & Co, Jefferson, NC, 2015, ISBN: 0 7864 9705 X (ISBN-13: 9780786497058) Check availability (amazon*): |
Diot, Rolande: Chaos par K.O.: un exemple d'incompatibilité d'humour, le doublage et le sous-titrage des films de Marx Brothers
(Category: Articles about the Marx Brothers, their movies, stage shows etc.)
Feibleman, James: Praise of Comedy: A Study of its Theory and Practice
(Category: Books and articles which have the Marx Brothers not as their main topic, but have a significant part about them)
Chapter 5: "The Comedy of Everyday Life: The Marx Brothers"
- Horizon Publishing, 1970, ISBN: 0 8180 1152 1 (ISBN-13: 9780818011528) Check availability (amazon*): - Routledge, 2022, ISBN: 1 032 22214 X (ISBN-13: 9781032222141) / (hardback) reprint of the 1939 edition Check availability (amazon*): |
Fix , Charlene: Harpo Marx as Trickster
(Category: Books about the Marx Brothers, their films etc.)
From the publisher's website: "The author invites readers to spend time in the pleasure of Harpo's cinematic company while comparing him to tricksters from folklore, myth and legend. The book demonstrates how Harpo, the sweetest, wildest, most magical Marx brother, accomplishes the archetypal trickster's work. Thirteen chapters examine Harpo's trickster persona closely in each of the Marx Brothers' films"
- McFarland & Co, Jefferson, NC, 2013, ISBN: 0 786 47147 6 (ISBN-13: 9780786471478) Check availability (amazon*): |
Fuentes Luque, Adrián: La recepción del humor audiovisual
(Category: Articles about the Marx Brothers, their movies, stage shows etc.)
estudio comparativo de fragmentos de las versiones doblada y subtitulada al español de la película "Duck soup" de los hermanos Marx
(comparison of the subtitled and dubbed Spanish versions of "Duck Soup")
Fuentes Luque, Adrián: On the (Mis/Over/Under) Translation of the Marx Brothers' Humour
(Category: Articles about the Marx Brothers, their movies, stage shows etc.)
- in: "Translation, Humour and the Media: Translation and Humour", Vol 2. Delia Chiaro (ed.), Continuum, London, UK, 2010, ISBN: 1 4411 3788 2 (ISBN-13: 9781441137883) / (hardback) Check availability (amazon*): - in: "Translation, Humour and the Media: Translation and Humour", Vol 2. Delia Chiaro (ed.), Continuum, London, UK, 2010, ISBN: 1 4411 7691 8 (ISBN-13: 9781441176912) / (paperback) Check availability (amazon*): |
Fuentes Luque, Adrián: Reír o no reír, esa es la cuestión: la traducción del humor verbal audiovisual. Estudio descriptivo de un fragmento de Duck Soup, de los Hermanos Marx
(Category: Articles about the Marx Brothers, their movies, stage shows etc.)
The title translates as "To laugh, or not to laugh, that is the question"
Galestin, Paul: The Marx Brothers: Verbal and Visual Nonsense in Their Films
(Category: Articles about the Marx Brothers, their movies, stage shows etc.)
Keywords: general literature; film; use of nonsense; relationship to the visual; the verbal; in Marx Brothers films
- Dutch Quarterly Review of Anglo American Letters, 16:3, 237-248, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1986, ISSN: 0046-0842 - Tigges-Wim (ed.): "Explorations in the Field of Nonsense", Rodopi, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1987, ISBN: 90 6203 699 6 (ISBN-13: 9789062036998) Check availability (amazon*): |
Gardner, Martin Allen: The Marx Brothers: An Investigation of Their Films as Satirical Social Criticism
(Category: Books about the Marx Brothers, their films etc.)
- McFarland & Co, Jefferson, NC, 2009, ISBN: 0 7864 3942 4 (ISBN-13: 9780786439423) / titled "The Marx Brothers as Social Critics", this is an extended edition of the original Ph.D. thesis Check availability (amazon*): |
Gehring, Wes D.: Kinds of American Film Comedy: Six Core Genres and Their Literary Roots
(Category: Books and articles of little or unknown relation to the Marx Brothers)
From the publisher: "This groundbreaking film study begins with a survey of American print humorists from eras leading up to and overlapping the advent of film—including some who worked both on the page and on the screen [...]. Six comic film genres are identified as outgrowths of a national tradition of Cracker Barrel philosophers, personality comedy, parody, screwball comedy, romantic comedy and dark comedy. [...]"
I assume the Marx Brothers will be mentioned in some place.
- McFarland, 2024, ISBN: 1 476 68899 0 (ISBN-13: 9781476688992) / softcover Check availability (amazon*): |
Hui, Isaac : The comedy of the "para-site": Duck Soup, Volpone, and Hamlet
(Category: Articles which mention the Marx Brothers, but have a different main topic)
Abstract
[The] article argues that the comedy of Mosca the parasite in Volpone is related to his role as a parasite. ... [At] the same time, he becomes who he claims he is not. To quote another famous line from the Marx Brothers: "He may look like an idiot, and talk like an idiot, but don't let that fool you. He really is an idiot." While the set-up of this joke makes us believe that there is a difference between "he" and the "idiot," the punch line says that there is none.
In order to justify this theory, this article rereads Mosca's scene in great detail with the theory of Lacan. Through the discussion, this paper argues that the parasite’s speech is full of internal inconsistencies and contradictions. Even though the parasite claims that he is different from Volpone's three "bastards" (Nano the dwarf, Androgyne the hermaphrodite, and Castrone the eunuch), his speech suggests that he is no different from the trio. He believes in his own words and their power because he is situated in his "para-site." In the final two parts of this article, the discussion will refer back to the mirror scene in Duck Soup, exemplifying the logic of comedy through the mechanism of the "para-site." Moreover, this paper addresses the different functioning of the "mirror stage" in comedy and tragedy through comparing Duck Soup, Volpone, and Hamlet...
Kamphausen, Heiner: Zur Komik der Marx Brothers in ihren frühen Filmen (Paramount 1929 - 1933)
(Category: Books about the Marx Brothers, their films etc.)
Masters Thesis
LeMaster, David James: Charlie Chaplin and Harpo Marx as Masks of the Commedia dell'Arte: Theory and Practice
(Category: Books and articles which have the Marx Brothers not as their main topic, but have a significant part about them)
Keywords: dramatic arts; film; role of Chaplin, Charles Spencer; Marx, Harpo; relationship to commedia dell'arte
Lie, Sulgi: Gehend kommen
(Category: Books and articles which have the Marx Brothers not as their main topic, but have a significant part about them)
Adornos Slapstick: Charlie Chaplin & The Marx Brothers
From the publisher's website:
"[...] Ziel der vorliegenden Studie ist nichts anderes, als für Adornos Gelächter eine theoretische Lanze zu brechen und diesem nicht nur in seinen Texten nachzuspüren, sondern auch in den Filmen jener Komiker, die er so bewunderte: von Charlie Chaplin und den Marx Brothers. Aus der parallelen Lektüre von philosophischen Texten und Hollywood-Filmen wird nicht zuletzt eine Filmästhetik extrahiert, von der immer noch von manchen angenommen wird, dass es diese bei einem Denker nicht geben könne, der ja berechtigterweise einmal behauptete, nach jedem Kinobesuch wieder dümmer herauszukommen. [...]"
Contents:
I. Zweimal: Adornos Chaplin, pp.21-152
II. Dreimal: The Marx Brothers, pp.153-266
III. Noch einmal: Charlie Chaplin, pp. 267-385
- (deutsch) Vorwerk 8, Berlin, 2022, ISBN: 3 947238 27 4 (ISBN-13: 9783947238279) Check availability (amazon*): |
Liethen, Anne-Marie: Die Marx Brothers im Krieg. Eine Analyse von "Duck Soup"
(Category: Books about the Marx Brothers, their films etc.)
Analysis of "Duck Soup". University assignment
- (deutsch) self-published, 2022, ISBN: 3 346 75376 X (ISBN-13: 9783346753762) Check availability (amazon*): |
Mellencamp, Patricia: Jokes and Their Relation to the Marx Brothers
(Category: Articles about the Marx Brothers, their movies, stage shows etc.)
Keywords: general literature; film; role of jokes; in films; of Marx Brothers; semiotic approach; psychoanalytic approach
Metzner, Holger: Say, am I stewed or did a grapefruit just flew by?
(Category: Books about the Marx Brothers, their films etc.)
(Untertitel/secondary title) Die Komik der Marx Brothers zwischen Unterhaltung und Avantgarde
Abstract: "Eine hermeneutische Analyse einer der erfolgreichsten und gleichzeitig avantgardistischsten Comedy-Gruppen des 20. Jahrhunderts. Die Marx-Brothers haben nicht nur ein Millionenpublikum unter einfachen amerikanischen Arbeitern gefunden, sondern auch Impulse für die bildende und darstellende Kunst Europas gegeben. Die Ursache dieses Erfolges liegt wesentlich in ihrer Verwurzelung in den großen Krisen und Umbrüchen ihrer Zeit.
Die vorliegende Arbeit verfolgt den Zusammenhang zwischen komischem Ausdruck und lebensweltlicher Realität. Groucho, Harpo und Chico - als festgelegte komische Figuren entstammen sie einer uralten Komödientradition. Dabei präsentieren alle drei eine jeweils verschiedene Lachkultur. Im Vergleich dieser historischen Vorbilder mit der Realisierung durch die Marx-Brothers in der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts werden die Abgründe, Absurditäten und Neurosen einer kapitalistischen Gesellschaft deutlich, die unserer eigenen Zeit in ihrer Schnellebigkeit, Dynamik und Aggressivität sehr nahe ist."
- (deutsch) Hochschule für Musik und Theater, Leipzig, Germany, 2000, ISBN: 3 838659 66 X (ISBN-13: 9783838659664) / MA Thesis / Diplomarbeit Check availability (amazon*): |
Mills, Joseph (ed.): A Century of the Marx Brothers
(Category: Books about the Marx Brothers, their films etc.)
"Most scholarly work on the Marx Brothers has focused on biographical aspects of their careers and lives; "A Century of the Marx Brothers" suggests a myriad of other useful approaches to their film and stage productions. The collection's eleven essays examine the Marx Brothers' work from a number of critical perspectives ranging from reader-response theory to film semiotics. The contributors include international scholars in a variety of fields, such as literature, cultural studies, performance studies, and film history." (Publisher's information)
Articles include:
- Joseph Mills: "The Faces of Twentieth Century Comedy"
- Matthew Daube: "The Case of Rabbi Cantor vs. Roscoe W. Chandler: The Marx Brothers' Ethnic Construction of Character"
- Renata Jackson: "Who's Your Dada? The Marx Brothers at Paramount"
- Dean Wilcox: "Surrealistic Heroes: The Marx Brothers and the European Avant-Garde"
- Thomas Grochowski: "Horse Feathers, Monkey Business, and Lion Taming: The Marxes in Transition"
- Eric Sterling: "The Marx Brothers and the Satire of the Upper Class"
- Matthew Turner: "Signs, Slapstick, and Silence: The Transformation of Semiotic Meaning in the Comedy of Harpo Marx"
- Christopher Kelen: "Nation, Anthem, Irony in the Figure of Rufus Firefly"
- Lance Duerfahrd: "The Extras to the Extraordinary: The Other Characters in the Marx Brothers Film"
- Marc DiPaolo: "'Italians' Know Nothing of Love: The Marx Brothers as Guardian Angels for Young Couples in Jeopardy"
- Joseph Alvarez: "Woody Allen: A Red-Headed Marx Brothers Stepchild?"
- Zoe Brigley: "The Big Grey Ir-Elephant: The Play of Language in the Marx Brothers' Scripts and in Charles Bernstein's L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E Poetry"
- Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, 2007, ISBN: 1 84718 240 2 (ISBN-13: 9781847182401) Check availability (amazon*): |
Montgomery, John: Comedy Films: 1894-1954
(Category: Books and articles which have the Marx Brothers not as their main topic, but have a significant part about them)
Chapter 16 "The Eccentrics" devoted to the Marxes and W.C. Fields
- George Allen & Unwin, London, UK, 1968, ISBN: 0 04 791018 6 (ISBN-13: 9780047910180) / (revised) Check availability (amazon*): - Routledge, 2022, ISBN: 1 032 21289 6 (ISBN-13: 9781032212890) / reprint of the 1954 edition Check availability (amazon*): |
Morris, Christopher-D.: The Ithyphallus as Lacanian Signifier in the Marx Brothers' Comedies
(Category: Articles about the Marx Brothers, their movies, stage shows etc.)
Keywords: general literature; film; comic film; phallic imagery; as signifier; in films; by Marx Brothers; theories of Lacan, Jacques
O'Roark, Molly Noble: How to Harpo
(Category: Books about the Marx Brothers, their films etc.)
A performer's guide and analysis of compositional and theatrical techniques in the cinematic, televised, and recorded pedal harp performances of Harpo Marx (Doctoral Project Theses)
Abstract: "Harpo Marx, née Arthur Marx, was one of the most important harpists in the twentieth century. Although he began as a self-taught musician and never learned to read music, he introduced the harp to millions of people all over the United States and abroad through the Marx Brothers films. Harpo played the harp in eleven out of the thirteen films displaying his unique swing-harp arranging techniques. The purpose of this project is to preserve this great artist’s legacy as it relates to harpists and to create a guide to arrange and to create works in the style of Harpo Marx. This thesis tracks Harpo’s stylistic evolution over his long career in entertainment. It explores the compositional, technical, and performance style of Harpo Marx from his first film to his final commercial recording made just a few months before he died. The pieces that Harpo arranged demonstrate significant and innovative techniques that have been transcribed by the author and compiled in a compendium titled “How to Harpo.” This performer’s guide will enable modern harpists to apply Harpo’s techniques in order to make new arrangements in a Harpo-style."
- School of Music, College of Fine and Applied Arts, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 2019 / http://hdl.handle.net/2142/103624 |
Tiersma, Peter Meijes: Language-based Humor in the Marx Brothers Films
(Category: Books about the Marx Brothers, their films etc.)
"[This study] will analyze [...] those instances of humor which are linguistic in nature, in other words, those which are amusing because of the way in which language is manipulated." (taken from the Introduction)
Trahair, Lisa: The Comedy of Philosophy: Sense and Nonsense in Early Cinematic Slapstick
(Category: Books and articles which mention the Marx Brothers in a larger context)
- State University of New York Press, 2007, ISBN: 0 791 47247 7 (ISBN-13: 9780791472477) / (hardcover) Check availability (amazon*): - State University of New York Press, 2008, ISBN: 0 7914 7248 5 (ISBN-13: 9780791472484) Check availability (amazon*): |
Voncken, David
: From "Five and Ten in Woolworth" to "Negen Jaar in Tienhoven": An Analysis of the Dutch Translation of the Puns and Wordplay in the Marx Brothers Movies
(Category: Articles about the Marx Brothers, their movies, stage shows etc.)
Wigell, Christine Steiner: A comparison of the non-verbal and verbal lazzi performed by the Zanni of the commedia dell'arte and the visual and verbal gags performed by the Marx Brothers in their films
(Category: Books about the Marx Brothers, their films etc.)
MA Thesis
Winokur, Mark Brian: 'Smile Stranger': Aspects of Immigrant Humor in the Marx Brothers' Humor
(Category: Articles about the Marx Brothers, their movies, stage shows etc.)
Keywords: general literature; film; humor; treatment of immigrants; Marx Brothers
Winokur, Mark Brian: American Laughter: Immigrants, Ethnicity, and 1930's Hollywood Film Comedy
(Category: Books and articles which have the Marx Brothers not as their main topic, but have a significant part about them)
Abstract: "My dissertation begins with the fact that American film comedy is produced by a disproportionate number of ethnics and immigrants, from creative staff (Chaplin, the Marx Brothers) to businessmen (Mayer, Thalberg, Zukor). I use historical parallels in literature to justify the sence that thematic treatment of assimilation in comedy is a distinctly American development. [..] But the bulk of the work consists of readings of three comedies, and so of three comic subgenres: Modern Times and silent comedy, Duck Soup and antic comedy, The Thin Man and the screwball. "
- St. Martin's Press, New York, 1995, ISBN: 0 312 12342 6 (ISBN-13: 9780312123420) Check availability (amazon*): |
The Marx Brothers - Los Hermanos Marx - האחים מרקס - マルクス兄弟 - Les Freres Marx - 마르크스형제 - Братья Маркс - Bröderna Marx - برادران مارکس - I Fratelli Marx - Братята Маркс - Bracia Marx - Germans Marx - الأخوة ماركس - 馬克思兄弟 - Αδελφοί Μαρξ - Irmãos Marx