In this wonderful exploration of the meaning of laughter, Barry Sanders queries its uses from the ancient Hebrews to Lenny Bruce, turning up evidence of its age-old power to subvert authority and give voice to the voiceless.
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Few literary matters are more elusive of definition than the function of laughter. Many thinkers have taken up the burden of explaining its purpose, yet the more they explain, the more that best of gifts to plodding humankind hides its secret springs. If after reading Sanders's book we still seem no nearer to any real understanding of what laughter is, it is certainly not due to any skimping in his research. English professor Sanders (A Is for Ox, Pantheon, 1994) has gathered together a great deal of information on what have made and continue to make humans laugh?starting with the ancient world through the Middle Ages to the present?in relation to the social, intellectual, and doctrinal backgrounds of the times. But the feeling is inescapable that Sanders was at times bewildered by the magnitude of his undertaking and had never quite mastered exactly what he was examining. Not for your average collection.?A.J. Anderson, GSLIS, Simmons Coll., Boston
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
About the Author
Barry Sanders is the author of A Is for Ox: Violence, Electronic Media, and the Silencing of the Written Word, among other books. He is Peter and Gloria Gold Professor of English at Pitzer College in Claremont, California.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
wonderful,
By Benjamin J Godsill (Los Angeles, ca United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Sudden Glory: Laughter as Subversive History (Paperback)
This book truly works at the essence of what it means to be human, the idea the sentience can be seen as the ability to laugh may seem at times to be a stretch it is argued in such a effortless care-free manner that one is drawn to share the authors conclusions.Not light reading but well worth the time and effort.
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Inside This Book
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Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs):
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caustic laughter, modern joke, excessive laughter, grotesque realism, sardonic laughter Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Middle Ages, Lenny Bruce, New York, The Miller's Tale, Keith Thomas, Old Testament, Nicomachean Ethics, Mary Douglas, Saint Augustine, The Place of Laughter, Modest Proposal, Thomas More, The Praise of Folly, Feast of Fools, Ras Shamra, Stanford University Press, Saint Thomas, Natalie Davis, Milan Kundera, Hebrew God, The Defiant Ones, Allardyce Nicoll, Feast of Asses, Saint Anthony, Sigmund Freud Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
caustic laughter, modern joke, excessive laughter, grotesque realism, sardonic laughter Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Middle Ages, Lenny Bruce, New York, The Miller's Tale, Keith Thomas, Old Testament, Nicomachean Ethics, Mary Douglas, Saint Augustine, The Place of Laughter, Modest Proposal, Thomas More, The Praise of Folly, Feast of Fools, Ras Shamra, Stanford University Press, Saint Thomas, Natalie Davis, Milan Kundera, Hebrew God, The Defiant Ones, Allardyce Nicoll, Feast of Asses, Saint Anthony, Sigmund Freud Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
14
books
cite this book:
See all 14 books citing this book
- The Bible and the Comic Vision by J. William Whedbee on page 21, and Back Matter
- The Bible and the Comic Vision by J. William Whedbee on page 20, and Back Matter
- The Morality of Laughter by F. H. Buckley in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- The Mother of All Laughter: Sarah and the Genesis of Comedy by Terry Lindvall in Back Matter
- Male Delivery: Reproduction, Effeminacy, and Pregnant Men in Early Modern Spain by Sherry Velasco in Back Matter
See all 14 books citing this book
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