| Description |
1 online resource |
| Contents |
Act 1 Laughter at the Gods in Classical Times 9 -- 1 Old Comedy in Aristophanes' Hands 16 -- 2 Lucretius on the Unholy Nature of Things 32 -- 3 Laughter Overheard by Cicero 41 -- 4 Lucian Laughing Outright 55 -- Act 2 Humanist Games in Christian Times 65 -- 1 Erasmus's Praise of Folly 70 -- 2 Montaigne's Que sais-je? 88 -- 3 Hobbes's Braving of the Dark 98 -- 4 Spinoza's Deification of the Whole Lot 108 -- 5 Bayle's Send-up of a Comet 123 -- 6 Hume's Jesting with Natural Religion 139 -- 7 Whose Aberglaube'? 155 -- Act 3 Laughter at the Passing Generations 169 -- 1 New Comedy in the Hands of Plautus and Shakespeare 177 -- 2 Unfailing Impersonations by Moliere 200 -- 3 Adaptation of the Tragicomedy by Novelists 216 -- 4 Jesus vs. God in Saramago's Novel 230 |
| Summary |
"For about three thousand years comedy has applied a welcome humanist perspective to the world's religious beliefs and practices. From the ancient Greek comedies of Aristophanes, the famous poem by Lucretius, and dialogues of Cicero to early modern and Enlightenment essays and philosophical texts, together with the inherent skepticism about life after death in tragicomedies by Plautus, Shakespeare, Molière, and nineteenth-century novels by such as Dickens and Hugo, the literary critic and historian Alexander Welsh analyzes the prevalence of openness of mind and relieving good humor in Western thought. The Humanist Comedy concludes with close examination of a postmodern novel by the Nobel Prize winner Jose Saramago"-- Provided by publisher |
| Notes |
Print version record |
| Subject |
Humor in literature.
|
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Literature -- History and criticism -- Theory, etc.
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Humanism in literature.
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LITERARY CRITICISM / Humor.
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Humanism in literature
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Humor in literature
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Literature -- Theory, etc.
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| Genre/Form |
Criticism, interpretation, etc.
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| ISBN |
1306715369 |
|
9781306715362 |
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9780300206869 |
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0300206860 |
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