The Kovacsian

Ades, Dawn. Dada and surrealism reviewed. London: Arts Council of Great Britain, 1978. Print.

This book is full of Dada and Surrealist art arranged in a sort of picture essay layout with written essays in between them. It presented some interesting views on the movements and went very deeply into the philosophical aspects of the groups.

Dachy, Marc. Dada: the revolt of art. New York: Abrams, 2006. Print.

This book focused on all of the different Dada movements that sprang up in the early 1900s. It went into great depth and showed me where and when the different artists were working. It also had full color plates of a large collection of Dada art allowing me to see what these images looked like in real life.

Frey, John G. “From Dada to Surrealism.” Parnassus 8.7 (1936): 12-5. Print.

A brief history of the Dada and Surrealist movements.

Fowlie, Wallace. Age of Surrealism. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1960. Print.

This book went deep into Surrealist philosophy, particularly in the first chapter, and then talked about the artists individually.

Hess, Donna J. and Geoffrey W. Grant. “Prime-Time Television and Gender-Role Behavior.” Teaching Sociology 10.3 (1983): 371-88. Print.

A sociological study on gender-role behavior prefaced with data from previous studies and authors impressions from the data. Useful to me for identifying the ills of stereotypes and what works as a stereotype.

Hugnet, Georges et. al. The Museum of Modern Art. Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism. 3rd ed.New York: Arno Press, 1968. Print.

This is a series of essays on the history of Dada and Surrealism with a large collection of black and white plates of Dada and Surrealist art. It explained the philosophy and art of the artists and allowed me to see their art.

Knight, Arthur. “Types, Stereotypes, and Acting in Films.” College English 15.1 (1953): 1-7. Print.

A History of film acting and a description of what makes a good actor. Briefly speaks about stereotyping and a bit longer about typing and what makes a star.

Lears, T. J. Jackson. “Making Fun of Popular Culture.” The American Historical Review 97.5 (1992): 1417-26. Print.

Critique of an article about television and how it effects pop culture. Talks a lot about consumers and their effects on content and producers.

Paletz, David L. “Political Humor and Authority: From Support to Subversion.” International Political Science Review 11.4 (1990): 483-93. Print.

Goes into depth on four types of political humor from a sociological viewpoint. It was useful looking at the two negative types of humor and how effective they are.

Rubin, William Stanley. Museum of Modern Art. Dada, Surrealism, and their heritage. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1968. Print.

This book talks about Dada and Surrealism philosophy and art and has pictures of the movements’ art. The art is all from a traveling exhibition. This was a source of information about the movements.

Silberman, Marc. “The Politics of Representation: Brecht and the Media.” Theatre Journal 39.4 (1987): 448-60. Print.

After Kovacs’ death, a journalist compared his work to that of Bertold Brecht, a playwright who used reflexivity frequently in his work. This was my attempt at understanding the journalist’s meaning.

Smythe, Dallas W. “Reality as Presented by Television.” The Public Opinion Quarterly 18.2 (1954):143-56. Print.

Talks about stereotypes in television and explains, through charts and data, how bigoted television was in 1954.

Spigel, Lynn. TV by Design: modern art and the rise of network television. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2008. Print.

TV by Design is a book about art in television. It has a chapter specifically about Ernie Kovacs and even more specifically about his use of silence in his work.

Vogel, Amos. Film as a Subversive Art. New York: Random House. 1974. Print.

This book outlines the ways film can be subversive and then outlines how different movements used those tools to accomplish their goals. There is a section specifically about Dada and Surrealism that was very useful to me.

Walley, David G. The Ernie Kovacs Phile. New York: Bolder Books, 1975. Print.

A biography and study of his work. It is in depth and pulls from documents from his estate. It is a unique look at Kovacs and explains many of his skits, giving detailed transcripts of them.

White, Mimi. “Crossing Wavelengths: The Diegetic and Referential Imaginary of American Commercial Television.” Cinema Journal 25.2 (1986): 51-64. Print.

Talks about the world that television created within the medium. It is useful to me because it talks about the reflexivity of the television family having television.

Wooster, Ann-Sargent. “Why Don’t They Tell Stories like They Used to?” Art Journal 45.3 (1985): 204-12. Print.

Talks about why the old methods of storytelling died out and why the new ones cropped up. Talks a bit about art in television.