Maggie Hennefeld is Professor of Cultural Studies & Comparative Literature at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. She is the author of Death by Laughter: Female Hysteria and Early Cinema (Columbia UP, 2024), a curator of the 4-disc DVD/Blu-ray set Cinema’s First Nasty Women (Kino Lorber, 2022), and co-director of Archives on Screen, Twin Cities.
Maggie Hennefeld
Articles
On Cat Memes, Cannibalism, and Election Lead-Up Laughter
Maggie Hennefeld writes on the powers and perils of satirical laughter in the run-up to the 2024 US elections.
The Juridical Is Libidinal: From the First Amendment to “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm”
As Maggie Hennefeld explains, Sacha Baron Cohen’s satire takes scatological aim at the American body politic at its most abject.
Cinema’s First Epidemic: From Contagious Twitching to Convulsive Laughter
Maggie Hennefeld explores epidemics in early slapstick: as subject, as context, and as commodity.
Looking for Léontine: My Obsession with a Forgotten Screen Queen
Professor and programmer Maggie Hennefeld explores the world of forgotten silent film actresses and archivists’ struggles to rediscover lost film art.
Confronting the Unwatchable
Maggie Hennefeld and Nicholas Baer on our unwatchable era.
:quality(75)/https%3A%2F%2Fassets.lareviewofbooks.org%2Fuploads%2Falf%20eats%20cat.jpg)
:quality(75)/https%3A%2F%2Fassets.lareviewofbooks.org%2Fuploads%2F202006HennefeldEpidemic2.png)
:quality(75)/https%3A%2F%2Fassets.lareviewofbooks.org%2Fuploads%2F201909HennefeldLeontine.png)
:quality(75)/https%3A%2F%2Fassets.lareviewofbooks.org%2Fuploads%2F201907HennefeldBaer.png)