Controlling Laughter: Political Humor in the Late Roman Republic
5/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
Although numerous scholars have studied Late Republican humor, this is the first book to examine its social and political context. Anthony Corbeill maintains that political abuse exercised real powers of persuasion over Roman audiences and he demonstrates how public humor both creates and enforces a society's norms.
Previous scholarship has offered two explanations for why abusive language proliferated in Roman oratory. The first asserts that public rhetoric, filled with extravagant lies, was unconstrained by strictures of propriety. The second contends that invective represents an artifice borrowed from the Greeks. After a fresh reading of all extant literary works from the period, Corbeill concludes that the topics exploited in political invective arise from biases already present in Roman society. The author assesses evidence outside political discourse—from prayer ritual to philosophical speculation to physiognomic texts—in order to locate independently the biases in Roman society that enabled an orator's jokes to persuade. Within each instance of abusive humor—a name pun, for example, or the mockery of a physical deformity—resided values and preconceptions that were essential to the way a Roman citizen of the Late Republic defined himself in relation to his community.
Originally published in 1996.
The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
Anthony Corbeill
Anthony Corbeill is professor of classics at the University of Kansas and the author of Controlling Laughter: Political Humor in the Late Roman Republic and Nature Embodied: Gesture in Ancient Rome (both Princeton).
Read more from Anthony Corbeill
Sexing the World: Grammatical Gender and Biological Sex in Ancient Rome Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNature Embodied: Gesture in Ancient Rome Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Controlling Laughter
Titles in the series (6)
Engineers of Happy Land: Technology and Nationalism in a Colony Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Regulating the Social: The Welfare State and Local Politics in Imperial Germany Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSocial Bodies: Science, Reproduction, and Italian Modernity Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Gibeon, Where the Sun Stood Still: The Discovery of the Biblical City Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Colonialism and Revolution in the Middle East: Social and Cultural Origins of Egypt's Urabi Movement Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related ebooks
From Religion to Philosophy: A Study in the Origins of Western Speculation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The King and the Corpse: Tales of the Soul's Conquest of Evil Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Making Silence Speak: Women's Voices in Greek Literature and Society Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCharred Lullabies: Chapters in an Anthropography of Violence Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Edges of the Earth in Ancient Thought: Geography, Exploration, and Fiction Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Idolatry and Its Enemies: Colonial Andean Religion and Extirpation, 1640-1750 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsReading in Race and Ethnic Relations: The Commonwealth and International Library: Reading in Sociology Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsArthurian Triptych: Mythic Materials in Charles Williams, C. S. Lewis, and T. S. Eliot Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsXenophon the Socratic Prince: The Argument of the Anabasis of Cyrus Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRoman Stoicism: The history of the Stoic philosophy with special reference to its development within the Roman Empire Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Pillar and Ground of the Truth: An Essay in Orthodox Theodicy in Twelve Letters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Humanity of Thucydides Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Dreams in Late Antiquity: Studies in the Imagination of a Culture Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Inter-Actions: Relationships of Religion and Drama Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAutobiography and Other Writings Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCrimes of Art and Terror Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cicero on the Emotions: Tusculan Disputations 3 and 4 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Grail: From Celtic Myth to Christian Symbol Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Roman Stoicism Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJulius Caesar: The Wisdom of Shakespeare Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSelected Philosophical and Scientific Writings Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHypocrisy and Integrity: Machiavelli, Rousseau, and the Ethics of Politics Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Ancient Roman Afterlife: Di Manes, Belief, and the Cult of the Dead Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCollected Letters of a Renaissance Feminist Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 5: February 1781 to May 1781 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMaking Men: Sophists and Self-Presentation in Ancient Rome Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Songs of Resistance: Challenging Caesar and Empire Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSubject Matter: Technology, the Body, and Science on the Anglo-American Frontier, 1500-1676 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The First Hundred Years of Mikhail Bakhtin Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Hiroshima: Three Witnesses Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Ancient History For You
Holy Bible: From the Ancient Eastern Text Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hero Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Sex and Erotism in Ancient Egypt Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Egyptian Book of the Dead: The Complete Papyrus of Ani Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Survive in Ancient Egypt Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of Living: The Classical Mannual on Virtue, Happiness, and Effectiveness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Secret History of America: Classic Writings on Our Nation's Unknown Past and Inner Purpose Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5"America is the True Old World" Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Phantom Atlas: The Greatest Myths, Lies and Blunders on Maps Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Oh My Gods: A Modern Retelling of Greek and Roman Myths Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Don't Know Much About the Bible: Everything You Need to Know About the Good Book but Never Learned Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Paul: A Biography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Practicing Stoic: A Philosophical User's Manual Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5When God Had a Wife: The Fall and Rise of the Sacred Feminine in the Judeo-Christian Tradition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Heroes: The Greek Myths Reimagined Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mythos Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future---Updated With a New Epilogue Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Egyptian Book of the Dead Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5History of the Jews Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Visionary: The Mysterious Origins of Human Consciousness (The Definitive Edition of Supernatural) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Immortality Key: The Secret History of the Religion with No Name Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bullies and Saints: An Honest Look at the Good and Evil of Christian History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sumerians: A History From Beginning to End Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Republic by Plato Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Histories Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5America Before: The Key to Earth's Lost Civilization Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Troy: The Greek Myths Reimagined Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Controlling Laughter
1 rating0 reviews