Between Two Stools: Scatology and Its Representations in English Literature, Chaucer to Swift - Couverture souple

Smith, Peter J.

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0719097614 ISBN 13 : 9780719097614

Editeur : Manchester University Press, 2015

Synopsis

Now available in paperback, Between two stools investigates the representation of scatology - humorous, carnivalesque, satirical, damning and otherwise - in English literature from the middle ages to the eighteenth century.

Smith contends that the 'two stools' stand for two broadly distinctive attitudes towards scatology. The first is a carnivalesque, merry, even hearty disposition, typified by the writings of Chaucer and Shakespeare. The second is self-disgust, an attitude characterised by withering misanthropy and hypochondria. Smith demonstrates how the combination of high and low cultures manifests the capacity to run canonical and carnivalesque together so that sanctioned and civilised artefacts and scatological humour frequently co-exist in the works under discussion, evidence of an earlier culture's aptitude (now lost) to occupy a position between two stools.

Of interest to cultural and literary historians, this ground-breaking study testifies to the arrival of scatology as an academic subject, at the same time recognising that it remains if not outside, then at least at the margins of conventional scholarship.

A propos du livre

À propos de l?auteur

Peter J. Smith is Reader in Renaissance Literature, Nottingham Trent University

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Manchester University Press
• Date d'édition: 2015
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0719097614
• ISBN 13: 9780719097614
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 304
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible