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E-book
Author Corbeill, Anthony, 1960- author.

Title Controlling laughter : political humor in the late Roman Republic / Anthony Corbeill
Published Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, 1996
©1996

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Description 1 online resource (265 pages)
Series Princeton Legacy Library
Princeton legacy library.
Contents Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations -- Introduction -- Chapter 1. Physical Peculiarities -- Chapter 2. Names and Cognomina -- Chapter 3. Moral Appearance in Action: Mouths -- Chapter 4. Moral Appearance in Action: Mouths -- Chapter 5. A Political History o f Wit -- WORKS CITED -- INDEX LOCORUM ET IOCORUM -- GENERAL INDEX -- Backmatter
Summary Although numerous scholars have studied Late Republican humor, this is the first book to examine its social and political context. Anthony Corbeill maintains that political abuse exercised real powers of persuasion over Roman audiences and he demonstrates how public humor both creates and enforces a society's norms.Previous scholarship has offered two explanations for why abusive language proliferated in Roman oratory. The first asserts that public rhetoric, filled with extravagant lies, was unconstrained by strictures of propriety. The second contends that invective represents an artifice borrowed from the Greeks. After a fresh reading of all extant literary works from the period, Corbeill concludes that the topics exploited in political invective arise from biases already present in Roman society. The author assesses evidence outside political discourse-from prayer ritual to philosophical speculation to physiognomic texts-in order to locate independently the biases in Roman society that enabled an orator's jokes to persuade. Within each instance of abusive humor-a name pun, for example, or the mockery of a physical deformity-resided values and preconceptions that were essential to the way a Roman citizen of the Late Republic defined himself in relation to his community.Originally published in 1996.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Political oratory -- Rome
Political ethics -- Rome
Politics and culture -- Rome
Wit and humor -- Social aspects
POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Essays.
POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Government -- General.
POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Government -- National.
POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Reference.
Political ethics
Political oratory
Politics and culture
Politics and government
Wit and humor -- Social aspects
SUBJECT Rome -- Politics and government -- Humor
Subject Rome (Empire)
Genre/Form Humor
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9781400872893
1400872898