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Comic Medievalism
Laughing at the Middle Ages
Language:
English
Published/Copyright:
2014
About this book
First full-length critical study of humour in medievalism.
The role of laughter and humour in the postmedieval citation, interpretation or recreation of the middle ages has hitherto received little attention, a gap in scholarship which this book aims to fill. Examining a wide range of comic texts and practices across several centuries, from Don Quixote and early Chaucerian modernisation through to Victorian theatre, the Monty Python films, television and the experience of visiting sites of "heritage tourism" such as the Jorvik Viking Museum at York, it identifies what has been perceived as uniquely funny about the Middle Ages in different times and places, and how this has influenced ideas not just about the medieval but also aboutmodernity. Tracing the development and permutations of its various registers, including satire, parody, irony, camp, wit, jokes, and farce, the author offers fresh and amusing insight into comic medievalism as a vehicle for critical commentary on the present as well as the past, and shows that for as long as there has been medievalism, people have laughed at and with the middle ages.
Louise D'Arcens is Associate Professor in English Literaturesat the University of Wollongong.
The role of laughter and humour in the postmedieval citation, interpretation or recreation of the middle ages has hitherto received little attention, a gap in scholarship which this book aims to fill. Examining a wide range of comic texts and practices across several centuries, from Don Quixote and early Chaucerian modernisation through to Victorian theatre, the Monty Python films, television and the experience of visiting sites of "heritage tourism" such as the Jorvik Viking Museum at York, it identifies what has been perceived as uniquely funny about the Middle Ages in different times and places, and how this has influenced ideas not just about the medieval but also aboutmodernity. Tracing the development and permutations of its various registers, including satire, parody, irony, camp, wit, jokes, and farce, the author offers fresh and amusing insight into comic medievalism as a vehicle for critical commentary on the present as well as the past, and shows that for as long as there has been medievalism, people have laughed at and with the middle ages.
Louise D'Arcens is Associate Professor in English Literaturesat the University of Wollongong.
Topics
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Frontmatter
i -
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Contents
vii -
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Illustrations
viii -
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Acknowledgements
ix - I The Set Up
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Introduction: Laughing at, with and in the Middle Ages
1 -
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1 The Cervantean Paradigm: Comedy, Madness and Meta-Medievalism in Don Quixote
23 - II Oldies But Goodies: Comic Recovery
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2 Scraping the Rust from the Joking Bard: Chaucer in the Age of Wit
43 -
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3 Medievalist Farce as Anti-Totalitarian Weapon: Dario Fo as Modern Giullare
68 - III Hit and Myth: Performing and Parodying Medievalism
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4 Pre-Modern Camp and Faerie Legshows: Travestying the Middle Ages on the Nineteenth-Century Stage
91 -
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5 Up the Middle Ages: Performing Tradition in Comic Medievalist Cinema
112 - IV That’s Edutainment: Comedy and History
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6 ‘The Past is a Different and Fairly Disgusting Country’: The Middle Ages 139 in Recent British ‘Jocumentary’
139 -
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7 Smelling the Past: Medieval Heritage Tourism and the Phenomenology of Ironic Nostalgia
161 -
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Afterword: Laughing into the Future
181 -
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Bibliography
185 -
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Index
201
Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
January 17, 2024
eBook ISBN:
9781782043751
Original publisher:
D.S.Brewer
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook ISBN:
9781782043751
Keywords for this book
Medievalism; Medieval literature; Middle Ages; Medieval history; Comedy; Literature; Cultural studies; Medieval comedy; Comic texts; Comic medievalism; Chaucer; Don Quixote; Victorian Theatre; Monty Python; Heritage Tourism; Viking; Satire; Parody; Farce
Audience(s) for this book
For an expert adult audience, including professional development and academic research
