Jokes Don't Jump from Nowhere

Jokes Don’t Jump from Nowhere: Comic Dialogism in P.G. Wodehouse’s ‘Jeeves and Wooster’ Novels is the first study that thoroughly examines Wodehouse’s ‘Jeeves and Wooster’ novels under the scope of recent literary criticism. It closely analyses the effects of intertextual and intermedial dialogism in the novels. The references to different texts and media are mainly used to achieve affective and mnemonic responses in readers, but can also trigger comparative readings in scholarly communities. Moreover, the novels’ popularity depends on the numerous comic references to texts that are/were part of Anglo-American cultural memory as well as on the intermedial references to musical comedy and film, which are e.g. responsible for the novels’ strong visuality and the creation of visual-verbal incongruities. Through the use of intertextual/intermedial references Wodehouse achieves what Linda Hutcheon sees as the reason for the success of adaptations: the combination of ‘repetition with variation’. Furthermore, the repeated use of the same intertexts/intermedia connects the subversiveness of intertextual comedy with an affirmation of the fictional Arcadian-Edwardian world.