Humour and Humanism in the Renaissance (Variorum Collected Studies) - Hardcover

Bowen, Barbara C.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0860789543 ISBN 13: 9780860789543

Publisher: Routledge, 2004

Synopsis

Of the articles in this volume, eight concern a world-famous author (François Rabelais); the others are studies of little-known authors (Cortesi, Corrozet, Mercier) or genres (the joke, the apophthegm). The common theme, in all but one, is humour: how it was defined, and how used, by orators and humanists but also by court jesters, princes, peasants and housewives. Though neglected by historians, this subject was of crucial importance to writers as different as Luther, Erasmus, Thomas More and François Rabelais. The book is divided into four sections. 'Humanist Wit' concerns the large and multi-lingual corpus of Renaissance facetiae. The second and third parts focus on French humanist humour, Rabelais in particular, while the last section is titled '"Serious" Humanists' because humour is by no means absent from it. For the Renaissance, as Erasmus and Rabelais amply demonstrate, and as the 'minor' authors studied here confirm, wit, whether affectionate or bitingly satirical, can coexist with, and indeed be inseparable from, serious purpose. Rabelais, as so often, said it best: 'Rire est le propre de l'homme.'

About this title

About the Author

Barbara C. Bowen is Professor of French, Emerita, at Vanderbilt University, USA.

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0860789543
• ISBN 13: 9780860789543
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 314