Harpo Marx as Trickster

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by Charlene Fix

Type

Stories

Subject

Actor > Harpo Marx

Keywords

Harpo Marx, humor

Publishing date

2013

Publisher

McFarland & Co

Language

English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Paperback • 232 pages
6 x 9 inches (15 x 23 cm)

ISBN

978-0-7864-7147-8

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Book Presentation:
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: The Cocoanuts, Animal Crackers, Monkey Business, Horse Feathers, Duck Soup, A Night at the Opera, A Day at the Races, Room Service, At the Circus, Go West, The Big Store, A Night in Casablanca and Love Happy. Harpo as trickster embodies luck, foolishness, cleverness, mania, hunger, lust, stealing, shape-shifting, gender-bending, alliance with underdogs, attacks on the powerful, musicality, sympathy for animals, magic and mischief. His trickster behaviors in all the films are woven into a composite impression that “with a little luck, will resonate beyond the covers of this book and leak out into the world, making it a more just, flexible, resilient, amusing and magical place.”

About the Author:
Charlene Fix is a professor of literature and creative writing at Columbus College of Art and Design in Columbus, Ohio.

See the publisher website: McFarland & Co

See the complete filmography of Harpo Marx on the website: IMDB ...