Shakespeare and laughter : a cultural history / Indira Ghose.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ghose, Indira, author.

Contributor:

Frost, Matthew, other.

Manchester University Press, publisher.

Series:

Manchester Shakespeare collection.

Manchester Shakespeare collection

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616--Criticism and interpretation.

Shakespeare, William.

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616.

Criticism and interpretation.

Laughter in literature.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (240 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Manchester, UK : Manchester University Press, 2013.

Language Note:

In English.

System Details:

text file

PDF

Summary:

This book examines laughter in the Shakespearean theatre, in the context of a cultural history of early modern laughter. Aimed at an informed readership as well as graduate students and scholars in the field of Shakespeare studies, it is the first study to focus specifically on laughter, not comedy. It looks at various strands of the early modern discourse on laughter, ranging from medical treatises and courtesy manuals to Puritan tracts and jestbook literature. It argues that few cultural phenomena have undergone as radical a change in meaning as laughter.Laughter became bound up with questions of taste and class identity. At the same time, humanist thinkers revalorised the status of recreation and pleasure. These developments left their trace on the early modern theatre, where laughter was retailed as a commodity in an emerging entertainment industry. Shakespeare ́s plays both reflect and shape these changes, particularly in his adaptation of the Erasmian wise fool as a stage figure, and in the sceptical strain of thought that is encapsulated in the laughter evoked in the plays.

Contents:

Acknowledgements

Introduction

1. Courtliness and laughter

2. Laughter and recreation in the Shakespearean theatre

3. Early modern humour

4. The Puritans and laughter

5. Lear ́s fool

Select bibliography

Index.

Notes:

In-house editor: Matthew Frost.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print record and e-Publication, viewed on June 20, 2018.

Other Format:

Print version: Ghose, Indira. Shakespeare and laughter: a cultural history,

ISBN:

9781847791696

9781847797049

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.