Week of March 13, Friday Lecture

I. Depression: Traumatic Event

II. Periodization: 1929-1932 And 1933-1940

• Early Depression: Desperation, Sense of Powerlessness and Chaos
• Later Depression: Search for Security & Order, Re-affirmation of
  Traditional Values

III. Analyzing Popular Culture

IV. Early Depression

• Anarchistic Comedies (Marx Brothers and W.C. Fields)
  IMAGE: The Marx Brothers
  IMAGE: W.C. Fields
  Script of The Fatal Glass of Beer
• Dramas: I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang
  IMAGE: Movie Posters
• The Gangsters (Public Enemy and Little Caesar)
  IMAGE: Public Enemy Movie Poster
  IMAGE: Little Caesar Movie Poster

V. Individualism And The Success Ethic

• Dale Carnegies' How to Win Friends and Influence People.
  Outline of the Book
• Comic Heros
  IMAGE: Cover of Early Flash Gordon Comic
  IMAGE: Read a Dick Tracy Comic from 1932
• Superman and Batman
  IMAGE: Superman No. 1
  IMAGE: Batman No. 1

VI. Men and Women

• The Problem posed by the Depression
• Strong Women in Film
  IMAGE: Marlene Dietrich
  IMAGE: Greta Garbo
• Mae West
  IMAGE: Mae West
  IMAGE: I'm No Angel Movie Poster
• The Romantic Comedy
  IMAGE: It Happened One Night Movie Poster

VII. Escapism

• Simply an Escape?
  IMAGE: Raymond Chandler
  IMAGE: Margaret Mitchell
• Reaffirmation
  IMAGE: John Steinbeck
• Beneath Much of The Escapism Was a Deeper Realism
  IMAGE: King Kong
  IMAGE: Preston Sturges
  IMAGE: Sullivan's Travels Poster

return to Depression and Response

created: February 10, 2000
last updated: February 23, 2000

Copyright 2000, Mark Kornbluh