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Playing the fool : subversive laughter in troubled times / Ralph Lerner.
De Gruyter University of Chicago Press eBook-Package Backlist 2000-2013 Available online
View online- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Lerner, Ralph.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- More, Thomas, Saint, 1478-1535--Language.
- More, Thomas.
- Bacon, Francis, 1561-1626--Language.
- Bacon, Francis.
- Burton, Robert, 1577-1640--Language.
- Burton, Robert.
- Bayle, Pierre, 1647-1706--Language.
- Bayle, Pierre.
- Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790--Language.
- Franklin, Benjamin.
- Gibbon, Edward, 1737-1794--Language.
- Gibbon, Edward.
- Political satire--History and criticism.
- Political satire.
- Fools and jesters--Political aspects.
- Fools and jesters.
- Laughter--Political aspects.
- Laughter.
- Political science--Language.
- Political science.
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource (145 p.)
- Place of Publication:
- Chicago : University of Chicago Press, c2009.
- Language Note:
- English
- Summary:
- The role of the fool is to provoke the powerful to question their convictions, preferably while avoiding a beating. Fools accomplish this not by hectoring their audience, but by broaching sensitive topics indirectly, often disguising their message in a joke or a tale. Writers and thinkers throughout history have adopted the fool's approach, and here Ralph Lerner turns to six of them-Thomas More, Francis Bacon, Robert Burton, Pierre Bayle, Benjamin Franklin, and Edward Gibbon-to elucidate the strategies these men employed to persuade the heedless, the zealous, and the overly confid
- Contents:
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1. Tomfoolery in Earnest
- 2. The Jihād of St. Alban
- 3. Burton's Antics
- 4. Remedial Education in Professor Bayle's History Class
- 5. Franklin's Double Take on Rights
- 6. The Smile of a Philosophic Historian
- Index of Names
- Notes:
- Description based upon print version of record.
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 24. Apr 2020)
- ISBN:
- 9786612426667
- 9781282426665
- 1282426664
- 9780226473178
- 0226473171
- OCLC:
- 475007593
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