Greek Laughter A Study of Cultural Psychology from Homer to Early Christianity 1st Edition by Stephen Halliwell ISBN 978-0521717748 0521717744

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Product details: 

ISBN 10:  0521717744

ISBN 13: 978-0521717748

Author: Stephen Halliwell

The first book to offer an integrated reading of ancient Greek attitudes to laughter. Taking material from various genres and contexts, the book analyses both the theory and the practice of laughter as a revealing expression of Greek values and mentalities. Greek society developed distinctive institutions for the celebration of laughter as a capacity which could bridge the gap between humans and gods; but it also feared laughter for its power to expose individuals and groups to shame and even violence. Caught between ideas of pleasure and pain, friendship and enmity, laughter became a theme of recurrent interest in various contexts. Employing a sophisticated model of cultural history, Stephen Halliwell traces elaborations of the theme in a series of important texts: ranging far beyond modern accounts of ‘humour’, he shows how perceptions of laughter helped to shape Greek conceptions of the body, the mind and the meaning of life.

Table of contents: 

1. Introduction: Greek Laughter in Theory and Practice

Nature and Culture, Body and Mind

The Dialectic of Play and Seriousness

To Laugh or Not to Laugh?

2. Inside and Outside Morality: The Laughter of the Gods and Homeric Men

Between Tragedy and the Desire to Kill: The Range of Homeric Laughter

Sacred Conflict and Joy in the Iliad

Thersites and the Dynamics of Laughter

Sex and Merriment on Mount Olympus

From Corruption to Madness: The Story of the Suitors

Afterword: Achilles’ Only Smile

3. The Excitement of the Banquet and the Rejection of Death

Dreaming of Immortality

The Tensions Faced: Intimacy and Opposition

The Satyrical and Tragic Versions of Banquet Laughter

The Complexities of Socrates: Xenophon’s Symposium

4. Ritual Laughter and the Renewal of Life

Worshipping the Gods with Laughter

A Map of Ritual Laughter

Models and Interpretations

Is Ancient Comedy a Form of Ritual Laughter?

5. Aischrology, Shame, and Ancient Comedy

Who is Ashamed by Shameless Speech?

The Sociolinguistics of Aischrology

The Speaking Habits of Theophrastus’ Characters

The Shamelessness of Aristophanes

6. Greek Philosophy and the Ethics of Mockery

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Tags: Stephen Halliwell, Greek Laughter, A Study, Cultural Psychology