1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910456250403321

Titolo

Humour, history and politics in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages / / edited by Guy Halsall [[electronic resource]]

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge : , : Cambridge University Press, , 2002

ISBN

1-107-12523-5

0-521-13365-3

0-511-15768-1

0-511-49632-X

0-511-12023-0

0-511-32979-2

1-280-15959-6

0-511-04510-7

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xiv, 208 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Disciplina

306.4/81

Soggetti

Civilization, Medieval

Classical wit and humor

Laughter in literature

Noncitizens in literature

Europe History 476-1492

Europe Social conditions To 1492

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

"Don't worry, I've got the key" / Guy Halsall -- Laughter and humour in the early Medieval Latin West / Danuta Shanzer -- Humour and the everyday in Byzantium / John Haldon -- The lexicon of abuse, drunkenness and political illegitimacy in the late Roman world / Mark Humphries -- Funny foreigners, laughing with the barbarians in Late Antiquity / Guy Halsall -- Liutprand of Cremona's sense of humour / Ross Balzaretti -- "He never even allowed his white teeth to be bared in laughter" : the politics of humour in the Carolingian Renaissance / Matthew Innes -- Alcuin's Disputatio Pippini and the early Medieval riddle tradition / Martha Bayless -- Laughter after Babel's fall :



misunderstandling and miscommunication in the ninth-century West / Paul Kershaw.

Sommario/riassunto

Although the topic of humour has been dealt with for other eras, early medieval humour remains largely neglected. These essays go some way towards filling the gap, examining how early medieval writers deliberately employed humour to make their cases. The essays range from the late Roman empire through to the tenth century, and from Byzantium to Anglo-Saxon England. The subject matter is diverse, but a number of themes link them together, notably the use of irony, ridicule and satire as political tools. Two chapters serve as an extended introduction to the topic, while the following six chapters offer varied treatments of humour and politics, looking at different times and places, but at the Carolingian world in particular. Together, they raise important and original issues about how humour was employed to articulate concepts of political power, perceptions of kingship, social relations and the role of particular texts.