Humour, History and Politics in Late Antiquity and the Early by Guy Halsall

By Guy Halsall

Even supposing the subject of humor has been handled for different eras, early medieval humor is still mostly overlooked. The essays gathered the following try and fill the distance, studying how the writers of early medieval assets intentionally hired humor to make their case. The essays variety from the overdue Roman empire via to the 10th century, and from Byzantium to Anglo-Saxon England. the subject material is various, yet a couple of issues hyperlink them jointly, significantly using irony, ridicule and satire as political instruments.

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See below, pp. –. ; Ammianus Marcellinus, vol. III, ed. and trans. J. C. Rolfe (London, ). Also Shanzer, below, p. , n. . For Athaulf, see Halsall, below, pp. –. Kershaw, below, pp. –; Haldon, below, pp. – for the Byzantine view.  Guy Halsall humorous is in this instance doubtful, but it helps to set up a situation where the normal structures of society are abandoned. Everything is all over the place. This creates a scene where a ludicrous outcome might be expected.

Links Jerome’s penchant for satire with Tertullian. For satire in prose, see Wiesen, St. Jerome as Satirist, p. . In the Confessions Augustine criticised the Manichees exploiting Persius’ recondite language. . St Augustine’s Confessions, ed. and trans. W. , London, ). The word aqualiculus was also picked up by Tertullian, Ieiun. : deus . . tibi venter est . . : Sancti Eusebii Hieronymi epistulae, CSEL –, ed. I. Hilberg and M. Kamptner, (Vienna, ); Commentariorun in Jeremiam Prophetan Libri VI, PL , cols.

Humour has many uses in social practice. As mentioned, it can be a means of negotiating social structures. ’ This can be a useful strategy because, just as authorities might claim the right to define what is or is not funny, and display power and authority by refusing to laugh, it is conversely sometimes unwise to seem to lack a sense of humour, and more often than not injudicious to overreact to something ostensibly intended as a joke.  Thus more subordinate parties in social relationships can use humour as a way of testing boundaries.

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