Greek laughter and tears : antiquity and after / edited by Margaret Alexiou and Douglas Cairns.

Format:

Book

Conference/Event

Author/Creator:

Alexiou, Margaret, Author.

Contributor:

Alexiou, Margaret, editor.

Cairns, Douglas L., editor.

University of Edinburgh.

Conference Name:

A. G. Leventis Conference in Greek (8th : 2013 : Edinburgh)

Series:

Edinburgh Leventis studies.

Edinburgh Leventis Studies ; 8

Language:

English

Greek, Ancient (to 1453)

Subjects (All):

Emotions in music.

Emotions in art.

Emotions in literature.

Greek literature--History and criticism.

Greek literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xviii, 486 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press, 2017.

Language Note:

English text with selections in Greek with parallel English translations.

Summary:

What makes us laugh and cry, sometimes at the same time? How do these two primal, seemingly discrete and non-verbal modes of expression intersect in everyday life and ritual, and what range of emotions do they evoke? How may they be voiced, shaped and coloured in literature and liturgy, art and music?<br><br>Bringing together scholars from diverse periods and disciplines of Hellenic and Byzantine studies, this volume explores the shifting shapes and functions of laughter and tears. With a focus on the tragic, the comic and the tragicomic dimensions of laughter and tears in art, literature and performance, as well as on their emotional, socio-cultural and religious significance, it breaks new ground in the study of ancient and Byzantine affectivity.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

List of Illustrations

Preface

Notes on Contributors

1 Introduction

PART I ANCIENT KEYNOTES: FROM HOMER TO LUCIAN

2 Laughter and Tears in Early Greek Literature

3 Imagining Divine Laughter in Homer and Lucian

4 Parody, Symbol and the Literary Past in Lucian

PART II ANCIENT MODELS, BYZANTINE COLLECTIONS: EPIGRAMS, RIDDLES AND JOKES

5 ‘Tantalus Ever in Tears’: The Greek Anthology as a Source of Emotions in Late Antiquity

6 ‘Do You Think You’re Clever? Solve This Riddle, Then!’ The Comic Side of Byzantine Enigmatic Poetry

7 Philogelos: An Anti-Intellectual Joke-Book

PART III BYZANTINE PERSPECTIVES: TEARS AND LAUGHTER, THEORY AND PRAXIS

8 ‘Messages of the Soul’: Tears, Smiles, Laughter and Emotions Expressed by them in Byzantine Literature

9 Towards a Byzantine Theory of the Comic?

10 Staging Laughter and Tears: Libanius, Chrysostom and the Riot of the Statues

11 Lamenting for the Fall of Jerusalem in the Seventh Century CE

12 Guiding Grief: Liturgical Poetry and Ritual Lamentation in Early Byzantium

PART IV LAUGHTER, POWER AND SUBVERSION

13 Mime and the Dangers of Laughter in Late Antiquity

14 Laughter on Display: Mimic Performances and the Danger of Laughing in Byzantium

15 The Power of Amusement and the Amusement of Power: The Princely Frescoes of St Sophia, Kiev, and their Connections to the Byzantine World

16 Laughing at Eros and Aphrodite: Sexual Inversion and its Resolution in the Classicising Arts of Medieval Byzantium

PART V GENDER, GENRE AND LANGUAGE: LOSS AND SURVIVAL

17 Comforting Tears and Suggestive Smiles: To Laugh and Cry in the Komnenian Novel

18 Do Brothers Weep? Male Grief, Mourning, Lament and Tears in Eleventh- and Twelfth-Century Byzantium

19 Laments by Nicetas Choniates and Others for the Fall of Constantinople in 1204

20 ‘Words Filled With Tears’: Amorous Discourse as Lamentation in the Palaiologan Romances

21 The Tragic, the Comic and the Tragicomic in Cretan Renaissance Literature

22 Belisarius in the Shadow Theatre: The Private Calvary of a Legendary General

23 Afterword

Appendix CHYROGLES, or The Girl With Two Husbands

Bibliography

Index Locorum

Index Rerum

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Jan 2018).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-4744-3513-0

1-4744-0380-8

1-4744-0381-6

OCLC:

1306541944