Enter Rabelais, Laughing

Barbara C. Bowen

ISBN 10: 0826513069 / ISBN 13: 9780826513069

Published by Univ Of Chicago Press Behalf Of Vanderbilt Univ. P Mai 1998, 1998

About this Item

Neuware - Francois Rabelais is a difficult and often misunderstood author, whose reputation for coarse 'Rabelaisian' jesting and 'Gargantuan' indulgence in food, drink, and sex is highly misleading. He was in fact a committed humanist who expressed strong views on religion, good government, education, and much more through the mock-heroic adventures of his giants.

Seller Inventory # 9780826513069

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Enter Rabelais, Laughing
• Publisher: Univ Of Chicago Press Behalf Of Vanderbilt Univ. P Mai 1998
• Publication Date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0826513069
• ISBN 13: 9780826513069
• Binding: Buch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 223W x 145H x 23D millimeters 223 millimeters width by 145 millimeters height by 23 millimeters depth
• Weight: 499 grams

About this title

Synopsis

Francois Rabelais is a difficult and often misunderstood author, whose reputation for coarse "Rabelaisian" jesting and "Gargantuan" indulgence in food, drink, and sex is highly misleading. He was in fact a committed humanist who expressed strong views on religion, good government, education, and much more through the mock-heroic adventures of his giants.

While most books about Rabelais have relatively little to say about his comedic genius, Enter Rabelais, Laughing analyzes the many sides of Rabelais's humor, focusing on why his writing was so hilariously funny to sixteenth-century readers. The author begins by discussing how the Renaissance defined laughter and situates Rabelais in a long tradition of literary laughter. Subsequent chapters examine specific contexts relevant to Gargantua and Pantagruel, beginning with the comic aspects of epic, chronicle, mock-epic, and farce, and proceeding to Renaissance and Reformation humanist satire, rhetoric, medicine, and law. All of these chapters combine information, much of it new, on the humanist message Rabelais wanted to convey to his readers, with an analysis of how he used his wit to reinforce his message.

Rarely is a writer's work treated in such illuminating detail. On a broad level, Enter Rabelais, Laughing serves as an excellent introduction to French Renaissance literature and exhibits a remarkably charming and lucid writing style, free of jargon. To Rabelais scholars in particular it offers a thorough and innovative analysis that corrects misconceptions and questions commonly held views.

About the Author

Considered one of the foremost scholars in sixteenth-century French and Romance language studies, Barbara C. Bowen is professor of French and comparative literature at Vanderbilt University. She is the current president of the Renaissance Society of America and is also the author of several previous monographs, including Words and the Man in French Renaissance Literature (1983).