Barbara C. Bowen's Books

Humour and Humanism in the Renaissance

By: Barbara C. Bowen

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Humour and Humanism in the Renaissance

By: Barbara C. Bowen

Of the articles in this volume, eight concern a world-famous author (François Rabelais); the others are studies of little-known authors (Cortesi, Corrozet, Mercier) or genres (the joke, the apophthegm). The common theme, in all but one, is humour: how it was defined, and how used, by orators and humanists but also by court jesters, princes, peasants and housewives. Though neglected by historians, this subject was of crucial importance to writers as different as Luther, Erasmus, Thomas More and François Rabelais. The book is divided into four sections. 'Humanist Wit' concerns the large and multi-lingual corpus of Renaissance facetiae. The second and third parts focus on French humanist humour, Rabelais in particular, while the last section is titled '"Serious" Humanists' because humour is by no means absent from it. For the Renaissance, as Erasmus and Rabelais amply demonstrate, and as the 'minor' authors studied here confirm, wit, whether affectionate or bitingly satirical, can coexist with, and indeed be inseparable from, serious purpose. Rabelais, as so often, said it best: 'Rire est le propre de l'homme.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

261

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Published Date

ISBN 10

1000948412

ISBN 13

9781000948417

Enter Rabelais, Laughing

By: Barbara C. Bowen

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Enter Rabelais, Laughing

By: Barbara C. Bowen

Francois Rabelais (1483?-1553) 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 analyses 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.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

264

Publisher

Vanderbilt University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0826513069

ISBN 13

9780826513069

Annual Review of Nursing Research, Volume 31, 2013

Exercise in Health and Disease

By: Barbara Smith

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Annual Review of Nursing Research, Volume 31, 2013

Exercise in Health and Disease

By: Barbara Smith

Print+CourseSmart

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

416

Publisher

Springer Publishing Company

Published Date

ISBN 10

0826119727

ISBN 13

9780826119728

Other Powers

The Age of Suffrage, Spiritualism, and the Scandalous Victoria Woodhull

By: Barbara Goldsmith

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Other Powers

The Age of Suffrage, Spiritualism, and the Scandalous Victoria Woodhull

By: Barbara Goldsmith

From the author of Little Gloria . . . Happy at Last, a stunning combination of history and biography that interweaves the stories of some of the most important social, political, and religious figures of America's Victorian era with the courageous and notorious life of Victoria Woodhull, to tell the story of her astonishing rise and fall and rise again. This is history at its most vivid, set amid the battle for woman suffrage, the Spiritualist movement that swept across the nation (10 million strong by midcentury) in the age of Radical Reconstruction following the Civil War, and the bitter fight that pitted black men against white women in the struggle to win the right to vote.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

845

Publisher

Knopf

Published Date

ISBN 10

0307800350

ISBN 13

9780307800350

Enter Rabelais, Laughing

By: Barbara C. Bowen

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Enter Rabelais, Laughing

By: Barbara C. Bowen

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

264

Publisher

Vanderbilt University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0826513069

ISBN 13

9780826513069

Book's by Barbara C. Bowen

Humour and Humanism in the Renaissance

Humour and Humanism in the Renaissance

Enter Rabelais, Laughing

Enter Rabelais, Laughing

Annual Review of Nursing Research, Volume 31, 2013

Annual Review of Nursing Research, Volume 31, 2013

Other Powers

Other Powers

Enter Rabelais, Laughing

Enter Rabelais, Laughing

Username

Password

Username

Password

Password again

Birthday

Email