Work Hard and You Shall Be Rewarded: Urban Folklore from the Paperwork Empire

by Alan Dundes, Carl Pagter

Overview

Anyone who has ever filled in a form in triplicate, taken an aptitude test, or been rebuffed by a form letter will appreciate the urban folklore found in this collection.

Anyone who has ever filled in a form in triplicate, taken an aptitude test, or been rebuffed by a form letter will appreciate the urban folklore found in this collection. Urban people as a folk are bound together by their unhappy experiences in battling "the system," whether that system is the machinery of government or the office where one works. The wonderfully expressive materials in this book—chain letters, memoranda, notices, and cartoons—touch upon every major controversy of urban America: racism, sex, politics, automation, alienation, welfare, the women's movement, military mentality, and office bureaucracy. The humor of the materials pinpoints the ills and frustrations of modern society and becomes, in turn, an escape from them.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814324325
Publisher:	Wayne State University Press
Publication date:	12/01/1992
Series:	Humor in Life and Letters Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Alan Dundes is a professor of anthropology and folklore at the University of California, Berkeley.

Carl R. Pagter is counsel and consultant for a large corporation in California.