Philip Burton
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199266227
- eISBN:
- 9780191709098
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199266227.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
This book argues that Augustine's Confessions may fruitfully be read as a series of encounters with language and signs: as a baby learning to speak, as a schoolboy orator, student, professor of ...
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This book argues that Augustine's Confessions may fruitfully be read as a series of encounters with language and signs: as a baby learning to speak, as a schoolboy orator, student, professor of rhetoric, and Christian exegete. While language is a universal human characteristic, the fact of languages tends to divide humans into arbitrary and uncomprehending communities; and even in individual communities, language can be manipulated or simply misunderstood. On the theological level, Augustine faces question of how to describe (and invoke) an absolute and immutable God in language that is necessary arbitrary and mutable. This book seeks to explore these questions through a close analysis of specific linguistic features of the work, such as his use of the language of Roman comedy, his attitudes towards Greek, or his use of biblical Latin. Consideration is given also to such ‘paralinguistic’ activities as singing or laughing, and to the relationship between the spoken and the written word.Less
This book argues that Augustine's Confessions may fruitfully be read as a series of encounters with language and signs: as a baby learning to speak, as a schoolboy orator, student, professor of rhetoric, and Christian exegete. While language is a universal human characteristic, the fact of languages tends to divide humans into arbitrary and uncomprehending communities; and even in individual communities, language can be manipulated or simply misunderstood. On the theological level, Augustine faces question of how to describe (and invoke) an absolute and immutable God in language that is necessary arbitrary and mutable. This book seeks to explore these questions through a close analysis of specific linguistic features of the work, such as his use of the language of Roman comedy, his attitudes towards Greek, or his use of biblical Latin. Consideration is given also to such ‘paralinguistic’ activities as singing or laughing, and to the relationship between the spoken and the written word.
Kiichiro Itsumi
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199229611
- eISBN:
- 9780191710780
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199229611.003.0004
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Poetry and Poets: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter demonstrates that there are two types of metre in the non-dactylo-epitrite poems, namely, aeolic and freer D/e. The former is similar with the aeolics of tragedy or comedy. The latter is ...
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This chapter demonstrates that there are two types of metre in the non-dactylo-epitrite poems, namely, aeolic and freer D/e. The former is similar with the aeolics of tragedy or comedy. The latter is similar with the normal D/e of Pindar.Less
This chapter demonstrates that there are two types of metre in the non-dactylo-epitrite poems, namely, aeolic and freer D/e. The former is similar with the aeolics of tragedy or comedy. The latter is similar with the normal D/e of Pindar.
Michael Hawcroft
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199228836
- eISBN:
- 9780191711251
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199228836.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
Molière wrote, directed, and starred in comedies for public and court audiences in 17th-century France. He is perennially successful, but perennially subject to critical controversy: do his plays aim ...
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Molière wrote, directed, and starred in comedies for public and court audiences in 17th-century France. He is perennially successful, but perennially subject to critical controversy: do his plays aim to do more than make audiences laugh? This book focuses on a group of characters in the plays, the interpretation of whose role lies at the heart of any answer to this question. For over a century critics have called them raisonneurs. They are characters who engage with some of Molière's most foolish protagonists, but they have been variously interpreted as either exponents of wisdom or as bores who are subject to ridicule. This book argues that new light can be shed on the words and actions of these characters, and on the tenor of the plays as a whole by detailed contextual analysis of the structures of dramaturgy and comedy in which they are deployed. They emerge neither as the mouthpieces of common sense nor as pompous fools, but as thoughtful, witty, and resourceful friends of the foolish protagonists whom Molière himself played. The book takes into account what is known of the performance styles of Molière's troupe of actors as well as engaging closely with the text of the plays and the critical debate to date. Some of Molière's most teasingly problematic plays are held up to fresh scrutiny, including L'Ecole des femmes, Le Tartuffe, Le Misanthrope, and Le Malade imaginaire.Less
Molière wrote, directed, and starred in comedies for public and court audiences in 17th-century France. He is perennially successful, but perennially subject to critical controversy: do his plays aim to do more than make audiences laugh? This book focuses on a group of characters in the plays, the interpretation of whose role lies at the heart of any answer to this question. For over a century critics have called them raisonneurs. They are characters who engage with some of Molière's most foolish protagonists, but they have been variously interpreted as either exponents of wisdom or as bores who are subject to ridicule. This book argues that new light can be shed on the words and actions of these characters, and on the tenor of the plays as a whole by detailed contextual analysis of the structures of dramaturgy and comedy in which they are deployed. They emerge neither as the mouthpieces of common sense nor as pompous fools, but as thoughtful, witty, and resourceful friends of the foolish protagonists whom Molière himself played. The book takes into account what is known of the performance styles of Molière's troupe of actors as well as engaging closely with the text of the plays and the critical debate to date. Some of Molière's most teasingly problematic plays are held up to fresh scrutiny, including L'Ecole des femmes, Le Tartuffe, Le Misanthrope, and Le Malade imaginaire.
Robert S. Miola
- Published in print:
- 1992
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198112648
- eISBN:
- 9780191670831
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198112648.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Shakespeare Studies
This book charts the influence of Seneca — both as specific text and inherited tradition — through an analysis of Shakespeare's tragedies. Discerning patterns in previously attested borrowings and ...
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This book charts the influence of Seneca — both as specific text and inherited tradition — through an analysis of Shakespeare's tragedies. Discerning patterns in previously attested borrowings and discovering new indebtedness, it presents an integrated and comprehensive assessment. Familiar methods of source study and an understanding of intertextuality are employed to re-evaluate the much maligned Seneca in the light of his Greek antecedents, Renaissance translations and commentaries, and dramatic adaptations, especially those of Chapman, Jonson, Marston, Garnier, Cinthio, and Dolce. Three broad categories organize the discussion — Senecan revenge, tyranny, and furore — and each is illustrated by an earlier and later Shakespearean tragedy. The author keeps in view Shakespeare's eclecticism, his habit of combining disparate sources and conventions, as well as the rich history of literary criticism and theatrical interpretation. The book concludes by discussing Seneca's presence in Renaissance comedy and, more important, in the hybrid genre, tragicomedy.Less
This book charts the influence of Seneca — both as specific text and inherited tradition — through an analysis of Shakespeare's tragedies. Discerning patterns in previously attested borrowings and discovering new indebtedness, it presents an integrated and comprehensive assessment. Familiar methods of source study and an understanding of intertextuality are employed to re-evaluate the much maligned Seneca in the light of his Greek antecedents, Renaissance translations and commentaries, and dramatic adaptations, especially those of Chapman, Jonson, Marston, Garnier, Cinthio, and Dolce. Three broad categories organize the discussion — Senecan revenge, tyranny, and furore — and each is illustrated by an earlier and later Shakespearean tragedy. The author keeps in view Shakespeare's eclecticism, his habit of combining disparate sources and conventions, as well as the rich history of literary criticism and theatrical interpretation. The book concludes by discussing Seneca's presence in Renaissance comedy and, more important, in the hybrid genre, tragicomedy.
Philip Kitcher
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195321029
- eISBN:
- 9780199851317
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195321029.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
James Joyce's Ulysses, once regarded as obscure and obscene, is now viewed as a masterpiece of world literature. Yet Joyce's final novel, Finnegans Wake, to which he devoted seventeen years, remains ...
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James Joyce's Ulysses, once regarded as obscure and obscene, is now viewed as a masterpiece of world literature. Yet Joyce's final novel, Finnegans Wake, to which he devoted seventeen years, remains virtually unread. Its linguistic novelties, layered allusions, and experimental form can make it seem impenetrable. This book attempts to dissolve the darkness that surrounds the Wake and to display instead its mesmerizing play of light. The book offers an original, appealing interpretation of Joyce's novel while also suggesting an approach to the magnum opus. Focusing throughout on the book's central themes, the book proposes that Finnegans Wake has at its core an age-old philosophical question—“What makes a life worth living?”—that Joyce explores from the perspective of someone who feels that a long life is now at its end. Alert to echoes, the book progresses through the novel, adding texture to his portrait of an aging dreamer who seeks reassurance about the worth of what he has done and who he has been. The novel's complex dream language becomes meaningful when seen as a way for Joyce to investigate issues that are hard to face directly, common though they may be. At times the view is clouded, at times it's the music or sheer comedy that predominates, but one experiences in the retrospective momentum a brilliant clarity unlike anything else in literature. With a startlingly profound compassion and a distinctive brand of humanism, Joyce points us to the things that matter in our lives. His final novel, this book believes, is a call to life itself.Less
James Joyce's Ulysses, once regarded as obscure and obscene, is now viewed as a masterpiece of world literature. Yet Joyce's final novel, Finnegans Wake, to which he devoted seventeen years, remains virtually unread. Its linguistic novelties, layered allusions, and experimental form can make it seem impenetrable. This book attempts to dissolve the darkness that surrounds the Wake and to display instead its mesmerizing play of light. The book offers an original, appealing interpretation of Joyce's novel while also suggesting an approach to the magnum opus. Focusing throughout on the book's central themes, the book proposes that Finnegans Wake has at its core an age-old philosophical question—“What makes a life worth living?”—that Joyce explores from the perspective of someone who feels that a long life is now at its end. Alert to echoes, the book progresses through the novel, adding texture to his portrait of an aging dreamer who seeks reassurance about the worth of what he has done and who he has been. The novel's complex dream language becomes meaningful when seen as a way for Joyce to investigate issues that are hard to face directly, common though they may be. At times the view is clouded, at times it's the music or sheer comedy that predominates, but one experiences in the retrospective momentum a brilliant clarity unlike anything else in literature. With a startlingly profound compassion and a distinctive brand of humanism, Joyce points us to the things that matter in our lives. His final novel, this book believes, is a call to life itself.
David Robey
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198184980
- eISBN:
- 9780191674419
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198184980.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
The importance of sound in poetry is indisputable, yet it is not at all an easy subject to discuss, and is rarely treated systematically by literary scholars. This book uses a variety of ...
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The importance of sound in poetry is indisputable, yet it is not at all an easy subject to discuss, and is rarely treated systematically by literary scholars. This book uses a variety of computer-based processes to construct a systematic analytical description of the sounds of Dante's Divine Comedy in the sense of their overall distribution within the text. The description is developed through a comparative treatment of the same features in a range of related texts, with a view to defining the distinctive characteristics of Dante's practice; and by a discussion of the function and effect of sounds in the work, with special attention to unusually high incidences of particular features. The book is thus both a contribution to the scholarly debate about Dante's poem, and an illustration and discussion of the ways in which new electronic technology can be used for this kind of purpose.Less
The importance of sound in poetry is indisputable, yet it is not at all an easy subject to discuss, and is rarely treated systematically by literary scholars. This book uses a variety of computer-based processes to construct a systematic analytical description of the sounds of Dante's Divine Comedy in the sense of their overall distribution within the text. The description is developed through a comparative treatment of the same features in a range of related texts, with a view to defining the distinctive characteristics of Dante's practice; and by a discussion of the function and effect of sounds in the work, with special attention to unusually high incidences of particular features. The book is thus both a contribution to the scholarly debate about Dante's poem, and an illustration and discussion of the ways in which new electronic technology can be used for this kind of purpose.
Roger Warren
- Published in print:
- 1990
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198128779
- eISBN:
- 9780191671692
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198128779.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, Shakespeare Studies
For the author, the most significant feature that is evident in the recent portrayals of Shakespeare's late plays, and probably in other staging attempts, involves the central characters' sense of ...
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For the author, the most significant feature that is evident in the recent portrayals of Shakespeare's late plays, and probably in other staging attempts, involves the central characters' sense of embarking on voyages of discovery, undergoing spiritual journeys, and how these characters have discovered themselves. All the major characters in Shakespeare's late plays (although probably demonstrated differently by Pericles) undergo fundamental psychological journeys. Peter Hall's stagings were able to illustrate an overt style that resembled the technique used in Shakespeare's preceding comedies.Less
For the author, the most significant feature that is evident in the recent portrayals of Shakespeare's late plays, and probably in other staging attempts, involves the central characters' sense of embarking on voyages of discovery, undergoing spiritual journeys, and how these characters have discovered themselves. All the major characters in Shakespeare's late plays (although probably demonstrated differently by Pericles) undergo fundamental psychological journeys. Peter Hall's stagings were able to illustrate an overt style that resembled the technique used in Shakespeare's preceding comedies.
Philip Burton
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199266227
- eISBN:
- 9780191709098
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199266227.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
This chapter examines Augustine's use of Roman comedy and mime in the Confessions, through a consideration of a series of incidents where comic language is used. It is suggested that the Confessions ...
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This chapter examines Augustine's use of Roman comedy and mime in the Confessions, through a consideration of a series of incidents where comic language is used. It is suggested that the Confessions may be read as a sort of anti-comedy, where the ‘happy ending’ consists not in his lawful marriage but in his renunciation of sexuality. While Augustine himself plays the part of the jeune premier, his mother Monica is cast as a comic ancilla domini. This comedy would then offer the educated reader with a real-life alternative to that offered at the theatre.Less
This chapter examines Augustine's use of Roman comedy and mime in the Confessions, through a consideration of a series of incidents where comic language is used. It is suggested that the Confessions may be read as a sort of anti-comedy, where the ‘happy ending’ consists not in his lawful marriage but in his renunciation of sexuality. While Augustine himself plays the part of the jeune premier, his mother Monica is cast as a comic ancilla domini. This comedy would then offer the educated reader with a real-life alternative to that offered at the theatre.
Cesar Lombardi Barber
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691149523
- eISBN:
- 9781400839858
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691149523.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This book argues that Elizabethan seasonal festivals such as May Day and Twelfth Night are the key to understanding Shakespeare's comedies. Interweaving anthropology, social history, and literary ...
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This book argues that Elizabethan seasonal festivals such as May Day and Twelfth Night are the key to understanding Shakespeare's comedies. Interweaving anthropology, social history, and literary criticism, the book traces the inward journey—psychological, bodily, spiritual—of the comedies: from confusion, raucous laughter, aching desire, and aggression, to harmony. Revealing the interplay between social custom and dramatic form, the book shows how the Elizabethan antithesis between everyday and holiday comes to life in the comedies' combination of seriousness and levity. “I have been led into an exploration of the way the social form of Elizabethan holidays contributed to the dramatic form of festive comedy. To relate this drama to holiday has proved to be the most effective way to describe its character. And this historical interplay between social and artistic form has an interest of its own: we can see here, with more clarity of outline and detail than is usually possible, how art develops underlying configurations in the social life of a culture.” This new edition includes a foreword that discusses the author's influence on later scholars and the recent critical disagreements that the author has inspired, showing that this book is as vital today as when it was originally published.Less
This book argues that Elizabethan seasonal festivals such as May Day and Twelfth Night are the key to understanding Shakespeare's comedies. Interweaving anthropology, social history, and literary criticism, the book traces the inward journey—psychological, bodily, spiritual—of the comedies: from confusion, raucous laughter, aching desire, and aggression, to harmony. Revealing the interplay between social custom and dramatic form, the book shows how the Elizabethan antithesis between everyday and holiday comes to life in the comedies' combination of seriousness and levity. “I have been led into an exploration of the way the social form of Elizabethan holidays contributed to the dramatic form of festive comedy. To relate this drama to holiday has proved to be the most effective way to describe its character. And this historical interplay between social and artistic form has an interest of its own: we can see here, with more clarity of outline and detail than is usually possible, how art develops underlying configurations in the social life of a culture.” This new edition includes a foreword that discusses the author's influence on later scholars and the recent critical disagreements that the author has inspired, showing that this book is as vital today as when it was originally published.
Francesca Aran Murphy
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199219285
- eISBN:
- 9780191711664
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199219285.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
Thomas Aquinas first gave an empirical or inferential argument for the existence of a transcendent God and then dealt with the problem of evil empirically. But if one considers God's existence on a ...
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Thomas Aquinas first gave an empirical or inferential argument for the existence of a transcendent God and then dealt with the problem of evil empirically. But if one considers God's existence on a logical or deductive level, the problem of evil will come in pursuit on a logical level, or as the logical concomitant of ‘good’. Because it cannot draw on knowledge of the transcendent reality of God's goodness, modern thought tends to picture good and evil as set in melodramatic confrontation. The ‘Unknowable God’ is easily conflated with his opposite number, Satan. Jenson's narrative theology falls into the trap of melodrama by making evil a necessary feature of reality, existing because of Christ, and grammatical Thomism does so by evading the problem of evil via its agnosticism about our knowledge of God and his goodness. Given that God is not as unknown in Thomas' own theology as in grammatical Thomism, the best way forward is to use our knowledge of God's goodness first to appreciate the value of created reality as such, and second to restate Augustine's merely factual or empirical explanation of evil via the Fall. One may then say that what Job experiences is the love of God.Less
Thomas Aquinas first gave an empirical or inferential argument for the existence of a transcendent God and then dealt with the problem of evil empirically. But if one considers God's existence on a logical or deductive level, the problem of evil will come in pursuit on a logical level, or as the logical concomitant of ‘good’. Because it cannot draw on knowledge of the transcendent reality of God's goodness, modern thought tends to picture good and evil as set in melodramatic confrontation. The ‘Unknowable God’ is easily conflated with his opposite number, Satan. Jenson's narrative theology falls into the trap of melodrama by making evil a necessary feature of reality, existing because of Christ, and grammatical Thomism does so by evading the problem of evil via its agnosticism about our knowledge of God and his goodness. Given that God is not as unknown in Thomas' own theology as in grammatical Thomism, the best way forward is to use our knowledge of God's goodness first to appreciate the value of created reality as such, and second to restate Augustine's merely factual or empirical explanation of evil via the Fall. One may then say that what Job experiences is the love of God.
Andreas Willi (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199245475
- eISBN:
- 9780191714993
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199245475.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
The contributions to this book illustrate how linguistic study of Greek comedy can deepen our knowledge of the intricate connections between the dramatic texts and their literary and socio-cultural ...
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The contributions to this book illustrate how linguistic study of Greek comedy can deepen our knowledge of the intricate connections between the dramatic texts and their literary and socio-cultural environment. Topics discussed include the relationship of comedy and iambus, the world of Doric comedy in Sicily, figures of speech and obscene vocabulary in Aristophanes, comic elements in tragedy, language and cultural identity in 5th-century Athens, linguistic characterization in Middle Comedy, the textual transmission of New Comedy, and the interaction of language and dramatic technique in Menander. Research in these topics and in related areas is reviewed in a bibliographical essay. While the main focus is on comedy, the book adopts a diversity of approaches (including narratology, pragmatics, lexicology, dialectology, sociolinguistics, and textual criticism).Less
The contributions to this book illustrate how linguistic study of Greek comedy can deepen our knowledge of the intricate connections between the dramatic texts and their literary and socio-cultural environment. Topics discussed include the relationship of comedy and iambus, the world of Doric comedy in Sicily, figures of speech and obscene vocabulary in Aristophanes, comic elements in tragedy, language and cultural identity in 5th-century Athens, linguistic characterization in Middle Comedy, the textual transmission of New Comedy, and the interaction of language and dramatic technique in Menander. Research in these topics and in related areas is reviewed in a bibliographical essay. While the main focus is on comedy, the book adopts a diversity of approaches (including narratology, pragmatics, lexicology, dialectology, sociolinguistics, and textual criticism).
Richard Greene
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198119883
- eISBN:
- 9780191671234
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198119883.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, Poetry, 18th-century Literature
Mary Leapor, of all the submerged poets, has been the one most warmly received by scholars and reviewers in the past few years. Accordingly, an examination of her work has implications for the study ...
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Mary Leapor, of all the submerged poets, has been the one most warmly received by scholars and reviewers in the past few years. Accordingly, an examination of her work has implications for the study of eighteenth-century poetry. She may be seen as a test case for poets outside the canon. This book argues that Leapor's poetry reveals a deep intelligence exercised especially upon issues of gender and class. She is accustomed to reading and is conscious of participating within a literary tradition. She is also a religious poet whose treatment of imminent death is at times distinguished. Her poetry achieves a remarkable range of feeling; it is at times a vehicle of comedy, of pathos, or of rage. Although she is not inventive in terms of technique, she brings to poetry a perspective and a tone of voice that are truly individual. In all of this, it is possible to recognize a poet of substance.Less
Mary Leapor, of all the submerged poets, has been the one most warmly received by scholars and reviewers in the past few years. Accordingly, an examination of her work has implications for the study of eighteenth-century poetry. She may be seen as a test case for poets outside the canon. This book argues that Leapor's poetry reveals a deep intelligence exercised especially upon issues of gender and class. She is accustomed to reading and is conscious of participating within a literary tradition. She is also a religious poet whose treatment of imminent death is at times distinguished. Her poetry achieves a remarkable range of feeling; it is at times a vehicle of comedy, of pathos, or of rage. Although she is not inventive in terms of technique, she brings to poetry a perspective and a tone of voice that are truly individual. In all of this, it is possible to recognize a poet of substance.
C. L. Barber
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691149523
- eISBN:
- 9781400839858
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691149523.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter considers the tendency for Elizabethan comedy to be a saturnalia, rather than to represent saturnalian experience. In Elizabethan England, a direct development of comedy out of festivity ...
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This chapter considers the tendency for Elizabethan comedy to be a saturnalia, rather than to represent saturnalian experience. In Elizabethan England, a direct development of comedy out of festivity was prevented by the existence of an already developed dramatic literature—and by the whole moral superstructure of Elizabethan society. When the issue was put to the test, license for festive abuse was never granted by Elizabethan officials. The tendency examined in this chapter bears witness to the saturnalian impulse which did find expression in dramatic fiction. Saturnalia could come into its own in the theater by virtue of the distinction between the stage and the world which Puritans were unwilling to make in London but which fortunately prevailed across the river on the Bankside.Less
This chapter considers the tendency for Elizabethan comedy to be a saturnalia, rather than to represent saturnalian experience. In Elizabethan England, a direct development of comedy out of festivity was prevented by the existence of an already developed dramatic literature—and by the whole moral superstructure of Elizabethan society. When the issue was put to the test, license for festive abuse was never granted by Elizabethan officials. The tendency examined in this chapter bears witness to the saturnalian impulse which did find expression in dramatic fiction. Saturnalia could come into its own in the theater by virtue of the distinction between the stage and the world which Puritans were unwilling to make in London but which fortunately prevailed across the river on the Bankside.
Kathrina Glitre
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719070785
- eISBN:
- 9781781700990
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719070785.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Hollywood romantic comedy inevitably ends with the union of a heterosexual couple. But does this union inevitably involve marriage? What part does equality play? Are love and desire identical? This ...
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Hollywood romantic comedy inevitably ends with the union of a heterosexual couple. But does this union inevitably involve marriage? What part does equality play? Are love and desire identical? This book explores the genre's changing representation of the couple, focusing on marriage, equality and desire in screwball comedy, career woman comedy and sex comedy. The shifting discourses around heterosexuality, gender, romance and love are considered in relation to such socio-historical transformations as the emergence of companionate marriage, war-time gender roles and the impact of post-war consumerism. Going well beyond the usual screwball territory, the book provides an understanding of the functions of conventions such as masquerade, gender inversion and the happy ending. This is complemented by a distinctive focus on individual films and their star couples, including detailed discussion of Myrna Loy and William Powell, Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, and Doris Day and Rock Hudson. The book offers foundational explanations of genre and an analysis of cycles and films.Less
Hollywood romantic comedy inevitably ends with the union of a heterosexual couple. But does this union inevitably involve marriage? What part does equality play? Are love and desire identical? This book explores the genre's changing representation of the couple, focusing on marriage, equality and desire in screwball comedy, career woman comedy and sex comedy. The shifting discourses around heterosexuality, gender, romance and love are considered in relation to such socio-historical transformations as the emergence of companionate marriage, war-time gender roles and the impact of post-war consumerism. Going well beyond the usual screwball territory, the book provides an understanding of the functions of conventions such as masquerade, gender inversion and the happy ending. This is complemented by a distinctive focus on individual films and their star couples, including detailed discussion of Myrna Loy and William Powell, Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, and Doris Day and Rock Hudson. The book offers foundational explanations of genre and an analysis of cycles and films.
REGINE MAY
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199202928
- eISBN:
- 9780191707957
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199202928.003.0013
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval, Plays and Playwrights: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This concluding chapter presents a synthesis of discussions in the preceding chapters. This book sets out to trace the use of tragedy, comedy, and mime in the different works of Apuleius. In using ...
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This concluding chapter presents a synthesis of discussions in the preceding chapters. This book sets out to trace the use of tragedy, comedy, and mime in the different works of Apuleius. In using Seneca’s tragedies and Aristophanes’ and Terence’s comedies in addition to the fashionable poetae veteres, Apuleius is much more inclusive than his contemporaries Fronto and Gellius. It can be shown not only that his philosophical texts use Plautine language for the purposes of archaizing colour, but that dramatic quotations from several genres can be applied to illustrate various other elements of philosophical discourse, for example by integration of a dramatic quotation into the argument, or manipulation of its meaning. The dramatic genres, however, play their part amongst many other genres.Less
This concluding chapter presents a synthesis of discussions in the preceding chapters. This book sets out to trace the use of tragedy, comedy, and mime in the different works of Apuleius. In using Seneca’s tragedies and Aristophanes’ and Terence’s comedies in addition to the fashionable poetae veteres, Apuleius is much more inclusive than his contemporaries Fronto and Gellius. It can be shown not only that his philosophical texts use Plautine language for the purposes of archaizing colour, but that dramatic quotations from several genres can be applied to illustrate various other elements of philosophical discourse, for example by integration of a dramatic quotation into the argument, or manipulation of its meaning. The dramatic genres, however, play their part amongst many other genres.
George Levine
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199608430
- eISBN:
- 9780191731709
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199608430.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
This book studies Charles Darwin's writing as literature, and The Origin of Species as the most important book in English in the 19th century, and surprisingly, one of the most beautiful. Reading ...
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This book studies Charles Darwin's writing as literature, and The Origin of Species as the most important book in English in the 19th century, and surprisingly, one of the most beautiful. Reading Darwin's work with the kind of attention one might direct to a great novel helps reveal Darwin's own personal voice in the midst of the scientific context, helps emphasize his extraordinary handling of language and his strategies of argument and representation, while emphasizing the emotional implications of his writing. The book traces the development of Darwin's way of seeing and imagining from his first book, The Voyage of the Beagle, through the On the Origin of Species, to The Descent of Man. It emphasizes the importance of his metaphors, his instinct for paradox (and their scientific and strategic uses), the ‘double movement’ of his writing, the love of nature evident in his meticulous descriptions, and the way his writing anticipated and influenced modernist or proto-modernist writers like Walter Pater, Thomas Hardy, and Oscar Wilde. It attempts to demonstrate that Darwin's ‘tragic vision’ is often also a ‘comic vision’, and that he renders mindless nature as awesome and beautiful. For Darwin, the world was marvellously ‘entangled’ and interconnected, every organism related to every other, and each slightest detail implicated in a vast history.Less
This book studies Charles Darwin's writing as literature, and The Origin of Species as the most important book in English in the 19th century, and surprisingly, one of the most beautiful. Reading Darwin's work with the kind of attention one might direct to a great novel helps reveal Darwin's own personal voice in the midst of the scientific context, helps emphasize his extraordinary handling of language and his strategies of argument and representation, while emphasizing the emotional implications of his writing. The book traces the development of Darwin's way of seeing and imagining from his first book, The Voyage of the Beagle, through the On the Origin of Species, to The Descent of Man. It emphasizes the importance of his metaphors, his instinct for paradox (and their scientific and strategic uses), the ‘double movement’ of his writing, the love of nature evident in his meticulous descriptions, and the way his writing anticipated and influenced modernist or proto-modernist writers like Walter Pater, Thomas Hardy, and Oscar Wilde. It attempts to demonstrate that Darwin's ‘tragic vision’ is often also a ‘comic vision’, and that he renders mindless nature as awesome and beautiful. For Darwin, the world was marvellously ‘entangled’ and interconnected, every organism related to every other, and each slightest detail implicated in a vast history.
Berys Gaut
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199263219
- eISBN:
- 9780191718854
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199263219.003.0010
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics
This chapter develops and defends the merited response argument for ethicism. Less satisfactory versions of the argument due to Hume and Noöl Carroll are criticized. The favoured version of the ...
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This chapter develops and defends the merited response argument for ethicism. Less satisfactory versions of the argument due to Hume and Noöl Carroll are criticized. The favoured version of the argument developed here holds, roughly, that when works prescribe responses to the events that they represent, their aesthetic success partly depends on these responses being merited, and that whether this is so partly depends on whether the responses are ethical. Several objections to this argument, including some by Jacobson, are discussed and rejected. The chapter also discusses at length the case of dark humour, including black comedies and satire. It is shown that dark humour does not undermine the merited response argument or ethicism.Less
This chapter develops and defends the merited response argument for ethicism. Less satisfactory versions of the argument due to Hume and Noöl Carroll are criticized. The favoured version of the argument developed here holds, roughly, that when works prescribe responses to the events that they represent, their aesthetic success partly depends on these responses being merited, and that whether this is so partly depends on whether the responses are ethical. Several objections to this argument, including some by Jacobson, are discussed and rejected. The chapter also discusses at length the case of dark humour, including black comedies and satire. It is shown that dark humour does not undermine the merited response argument or ethicism.
Clive Marsh
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195335989
- eISBN:
- 9780199868940
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195335989.003.0011
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
By using the three best‐known films of Richard Curtis as case material (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, and Love Actually), this chapter examines the problems and opportunities in using ...
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By using the three best‐known films of Richard Curtis as case material (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, and Love Actually), this chapter examines the problems and opportunities in using romantic comedy to teach theology and religion. Using Ed S. Tan and Nico Frijda's recent work on the role of cinematic sentimentality within the “cognitive turn” in film studies and building upon John Lyden's insights into the contemporary religious function of film in the West, the chapter considers the way in which popular cinema explores the theme of love. It shows how the labeling of these films as “sentimental” is misleading and fails to recognize their cultural function as contributions to society's discussion about commendable, loving relationships. Such a function cannot but be of interest to theology and religion and to those who teach in these fields.Less
By using the three best‐known films of Richard Curtis as case material (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, and Love Actually), this chapter examines the problems and opportunities in using romantic comedy to teach theology and religion. Using Ed S. Tan and Nico Frijda's recent work on the role of cinematic sentimentality within the “cognitive turn” in film studies and building upon John Lyden's insights into the contemporary religious function of film in the West, the chapter considers the way in which popular cinema explores the theme of love. It shows how the labeling of these films as “sentimental” is misleading and fails to recognize their cultural function as contributions to society's discussion about commendable, loving relationships. Such a function cannot but be of interest to theology and religion and to those who teach in these fields.
Emmanuela Bakola
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199569359
- eISBN:
- 9780191722332
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199569359.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Poetry and Poets: Classical, Early, and Medieval
Cratinus, one of the great lost poets of fifth-century Athenian comedy and a canonical author of the classical world, had a formative influence on the comic genre, including Aristophanes himself. In ...
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Cratinus, one of the great lost poets of fifth-century Athenian comedy and a canonical author of the classical world, had a formative influence on the comic genre, including Aristophanes himself. In what is the first major monograph in the best part of a century devoted to this author, Emmanuela Bakola offers a modern, comprehensive overview of Cratinus and his position within the genre of Greek comedy using a methodologically innovative approach. Unlike traditional ways of addressing fragmentary drama, this book does not merely reconstruct plays or texts, but by drawing on a range of hermeneutic frameworks, it adopts a thematic approach which allows her to explore Cratinus' poetics. Major issues which this book addresses include the creation of a poetic persona within a performative tradition of vigorous interpoetic rivalry; comedy's interaction with lyric poetry, iambos, and the literary-critical debates reflected by these genres; the play with the boundaries of the comic genre and the interaction with satyr drama and tragedy, especially Aeschylus; the multiple levels of comic plot-construction and characterization; comedy's reflection on its immediate political, social, and intellectual context; stagecraft and dramaturgy; comedy and ritual. Whilst being firmly based on principles of rigorous textual analysis, philology, and papyrology, by taking a broad and diverse outlook this study offers not just an insight into Cratinus, but a way of opening up and enriching our understanding of fifth-century Athenian comedy in a dynamic evolving environment.Less
Cratinus, one of the great lost poets of fifth-century Athenian comedy and a canonical author of the classical world, had a formative influence on the comic genre, including Aristophanes himself. In what is the first major monograph in the best part of a century devoted to this author, Emmanuela Bakola offers a modern, comprehensive overview of Cratinus and his position within the genre of Greek comedy using a methodologically innovative approach. Unlike traditional ways of addressing fragmentary drama, this book does not merely reconstruct plays or texts, but by drawing on a range of hermeneutic frameworks, it adopts a thematic approach which allows her to explore Cratinus' poetics. Major issues which this book addresses include the creation of a poetic persona within a performative tradition of vigorous interpoetic rivalry; comedy's interaction with lyric poetry, iambos, and the literary-critical debates reflected by these genres; the play with the boundaries of the comic genre and the interaction with satyr drama and tragedy, especially Aeschylus; the multiple levels of comic plot-construction and characterization; comedy's reflection on its immediate political, social, and intellectual context; stagecraft and dramaturgy; comedy and ritual. Whilst being firmly based on principles of rigorous textual analysis, philology, and papyrology, by taking a broad and diverse outlook this study offers not just an insight into Cratinus, but a way of opening up and enriching our understanding of fifth-century Athenian comedy in a dynamic evolving environment.
Kay Richardson
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195374056
- eISBN:
- 9780199776177
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195374056.003.0008
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Sociolinguistics / Anthropological Linguistics
Chapter 8 is the first of two case studies, each of which serves a different purpose in the book. Life on Mars (BBC 2006–2007) was chosen as an example of the new generic hybridity in television. ...
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Chapter 8 is the first of two case studies, each of which serves a different purpose in the book. Life on Mars (BBC 2006–2007) was chosen as an example of the new generic hybridity in television. Dialogue is interesting in this production for what it contributes to its dramatic significance, and various extracts are examined to show how lines have been crafted to achieve particular effects. The chapter engages with an ongoing concern regarding the quality of contemporary television drama, with particular reference to dialogue and to tensions between content and form in quality debates.Less
Chapter 8 is the first of two case studies, each of which serves a different purpose in the book. Life on Mars (BBC 2006–2007) was chosen as an example of the new generic hybridity in television. Dialogue is interesting in this production for what it contributes to its dramatic significance, and various extracts are examined to show how lines have been crafted to achieve particular effects. The chapter engages with an ongoing concern regarding the quality of contemporary television drama, with particular reference to dialogue and to tensions between content and form in quality debates.
