James E. Caron is Professor Emeritus, University of Hawaiʽi at Mānoa. In addition to publishing many articles on comic writers and comic artifacts, he has authored Satire as the Comic Public Sphere: Postmodern “Truthiness” and Civic Engagement (2021), and Mark Twain, Unsanctified Newspaper Reporter (2008), as well as co-edited essays on Charlie Chaplin in Refocusing Chaplin: A Screen Icon in Critical Contexts (2013).

• 1 Introduction: Fanny Fern and the Mob of Scribbling Women.- 2 Sara Payson Willis Parton’s (Comic) Preacher, Fanny Fern.- 3. The Satirist and Her Public.- 4 Satirizing Gender Expectations: Fanny Fern as the Impossible Subject.- 5 Creating Comic Community: Scathing Epithets, Caricature, and Comic Violence.- 6 Constructing Fanny Fern as Satirist.- 7 Fanny Fern’s Significance in the American Comic Tradition.

James E. Caron is Professor Emeritus, University of Hawaiʽi at Mānoa. In addition to publishing many articles on comic writers and comic artifacts, he has authored Satire as the Comic Public Sphere: Postmodern “Truthiness” and Civic Engagement (2021), and Mark Twain, Unsanctified Newspaper Reporter (2008), as well as co-edited essays on Charlie Chaplin in Refocusing Chaplin: A Screen Icon in Critical Contexts (2013).

• 1 Introduction: Fanny Fern and the Mob of Scribbling Women.- 2 Sara Payson Willis Parton’s (Comic) Preacher, Fanny Fern.- 3. The Satirist and Her Public.- 4 Satirizing Gender Expectations: Fanny Fern as the Impossible Subject.- 5 Creating Comic Community: Scathing Epithets, Caricature, and Comic Violence.- 6 Constructing Fanny Fern as Satirist.- 7 Fanny Fern’s Significance in the American Comic Tradition.

James E. Caron is Professor Emeritus, University of Hawaiʽi at Mānoa. In addition to publishing many articles on comic writers and comic artifacts, he has authored Satire as the Comic Public Sphere: Postmodern “Truthiness” and Civic Engagement (2021), and Mark Twain, Unsanctified Newspaper Reporter (2008), as well as co-edited essays on Charlie Chaplin in Refocusing Chaplin: A Screen Icon in Critical Contexts (2013).

• 1 Introduction: Fanny Fern and the Mob of Scribbling Women.- 2 Sara Payson Willis Parton’s (Comic) Preacher, Fanny Fern.- 3. The Satirist and Her Public.- 4 Satirizing Gender Expectations: Fanny Fern as the Impossible Subject.- 5 Creating Comic Community: Scathing Epithets, Caricature, and Comic Violence.- 6 Constructing Fanny Fern as Satirist.- 7 Fanny Fern’s Significance in the American Comic Tradition.