Mad Magazine and Postwar Jewish American Culture

• In Event: Jewish Comics and Graphic Novels

Abstract

Mad Magazine, founded in 1952 by a group of Jewish New Yorkers, is the most important and popular humour magazine in the United States. Although the impact of Mad on postwar Jewish American life was profound, there have been virtually no studies of this topic. My talk will aim to change this by charting the important ways that Mad Magazine spoke to and about changes occurring in postwar Jewish American life.
In the talk I will focus on the first ten years of Mad, from 1952-1962, as this was the era when the magazine spoke with the most intensely Jewish poetics. My aim will be two fold: 1.) To establish that the magazine was in fact part of a postwar, Jewish cultural tradition; 2.) To show how the writers and cartoonists used the magazine to confront and challenge the massive shifts in postwar Jewish life. I will discuss a number of Mad obsessions, such as McCarthyism, conformism, and changing gender roles, while paying particular attention to the manner in which the writers responded to suburbanization.

Author

• Leah Garrett, Hunter College