Thursday, September 27, 2007

The Batchelor's triumph: or, The single-man's happiness, 1672


















This image is all over ballads about lovers--I've seen at least 20 with this picture. In case you're unaware of the specific and hilarious reference, here are Flight of the Conchords with "Business Time":
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4 comments:

meghan said...

I really appreciate how such a variety of pop-culture and internet memes come into play with these manuscripts-- Not merely LOLCats, but Old Gregg, Flight of the Conchords, a bit of PerezHilton perhaps (I sensed it in the "Early Modern Crush" one)...

September 27, 2007 at 7:02 PM
Doug said...

Let's not forget Married to the Sea! Next you thing you know the Flying Spaghetti Monster is going to find its way into the mix.

September 27, 2007 at 7:20 PM
Sarah Redmond said...

You guys totally get what I'm all about.

Corrupting early modern pamphlet illustrations with ridiculous captions/defacements is also, of course, a commentary on the rise of print culture--a development that was not only groundbreaking but also provided a new form of cheap entertainment. There is also quite a bit of self-referentiality and pointed references to pop-culture and contemporary news in early modern drama.

To translate these images to a digital format and re-publish them in the 21st century means that they can be added into a universe dependent on cultural capital, a universe not totally different than the one from whence they came. I was pondering this as I used the image above, which(like a meme itself) is one of the many woodcuts that is recycled again and again in any number of different contexts.

Lolmanuscripts should, therefore, be accepted as my dissertation.

September 28, 2007 at 8:06 AM
danielle said...

you have made a very good argument for a research proposal. i esp think you should keep the line where you write: "Lolmanuscripts should, therefore, be accepted as my dissertation."

September 29, 2007 at 1:50 PM

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