Laughter in ancient Rome : on joking, tickling, and cracking up /
Beard, Mary, 1955-
Laughter in ancient Rome : on joking, tickling, and cracking up / Mary Beard. - Berkeley : University of California Press, 2014. - x, 319 pages, 4 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm. - Sather classical lectures ; volume seventy-one .
Includes bibliographical references (pages 277-300) and index.
Introducing Roman laughter : Dio's "giggle" and Gnatho's two laughs -- Questions of laughter, ancient and modern -- The history of laughter -- Roman laughter in Latin and Greek -- The orator -- From emperor to jester -- Between human and animal, especially monkeys and asses -- The laughter lover.
What made the Romans laugh? Was ancient Rome a carnival, filled with practical jokes and hearty chuckles? Or was it a carefully regulated culture in which the uncontrollable excess of laughter was a force to fear--a world of wit, irony, and knowing smiles? How did Romans make sense of laughter? What role did it play in the world of the law courts, the imperial palace, or the spectacles of the arena? Laughter in Ancient Rome explores one of the most intriguing, but also trickiest, of historical subjects. Drawing on a wide range of Roman writing--from essays on rhetoric to a surviving Roman joke book--Mary Beard tracks down the giggles, smirks, and guffaws of the ancient Romans themselves. From ancient "monkey business" to the role of a chuckle in a culture of tyranny, she explores Roman humor from the hilarious, to the momentous, to the surprising.
9780520277168 (hbk. : alk. paper)
2013040999
Laughter--History--Rome--To 1500.
Latin wit and humor--History and criticism.
HISTORY / Ancient / General.
LITERARY CRITICISM / Ancient & Classical.
POLITICAL SCIENCE / History & Theory.
ROME--Social life and customs.
BF575.L3 / B38 2014
152.4/30937
Laughter in ancient Rome : on joking, tickling, and cracking up / Mary Beard. - Berkeley : University of California Press, 2014. - x, 319 pages, 4 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm. - Sather classical lectures ; volume seventy-one .
Includes bibliographical references (pages 277-300) and index.
Introducing Roman laughter : Dio's "giggle" and Gnatho's two laughs -- Questions of laughter, ancient and modern -- The history of laughter -- Roman laughter in Latin and Greek -- The orator -- From emperor to jester -- Between human and animal, especially monkeys and asses -- The laughter lover.
What made the Romans laugh? Was ancient Rome a carnival, filled with practical jokes and hearty chuckles? Or was it a carefully regulated culture in which the uncontrollable excess of laughter was a force to fear--a world of wit, irony, and knowing smiles? How did Romans make sense of laughter? What role did it play in the world of the law courts, the imperial palace, or the spectacles of the arena? Laughter in Ancient Rome explores one of the most intriguing, but also trickiest, of historical subjects. Drawing on a wide range of Roman writing--from essays on rhetoric to a surviving Roman joke book--Mary Beard tracks down the giggles, smirks, and guffaws of the ancient Romans themselves. From ancient "monkey business" to the role of a chuckle in a culture of tyranny, she explores Roman humor from the hilarious, to the momentous, to the surprising.
9780520277168 (hbk. : alk. paper)
2013040999
Laughter--History--Rome--To 1500.
Latin wit and humor--History and criticism.
HISTORY / Ancient / General.
LITERARY CRITICISM / Ancient & Classical.
POLITICAL SCIENCE / History & Theory.
ROME--Social life and customs.
BF575.L3 / B38 2014
152.4/30937