"J Finley argues that through humor, and particularly sass, comedy functions as a medium for Black women to articulate and redress cultural, social, and political marginalization. Finley challenges mainstream and scholarly assumptions about sassiness as an identity or personality trait to which Black women humorists may be reduced. Instead, by deploying sass as a theory and building an archive of Black women's humor, Finley creates a new genre of discourse for understanding the ways in which Black women use language, style, ...
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"J Finley argues that through humor, and particularly sass, comedy functions as a medium for Black women to articulate and redress cultural, social, and political marginalization. Finley challenges mainstream and scholarly assumptions about sassiness as an identity or personality trait to which Black women humorists may be reduced. Instead, by deploying sass as a theory and building an archive of Black women's humor, Finley creates a new genre of discourse for understanding the ways in which Black women use language, style, gesture and intent to produce (often humorous) meaning in speaking back to authority, including authority that is merely presumed"--
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