Playing the fool : subversive laughter in troubled times /

Playing the fool : subversive laughter in troubled times / Ralph Lerner.

"The role of the fool is to provoke the powerful to question their convictions, preferably while avoiding a beating. Fools accomplish this not by hectoring their audience, but by broaching sensitive topics indirectly, often disguising their message in a joke or a tale. Writers and thinkers thro...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Lerner, Ralph.
Format: Book
Language:English
Published: Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2009.
Subjects:
More, Thomas, > Saint, > 1478-1535 > Language.
Bacon, Francis, > 1561-1626 > Language.
Burton, Robert, > 1577-1640 > Language.
Bayle, Pierre, > 1647-1706 > Language.
Franklin, Benjamin, > 1706-1790 > Language.
Gibbon, Edward, > 1737-1794 > Language.
Political satire > History and criticism.
Fools and jesters > Political aspects.
Laughter > Political aspects.
Political science > Language.
Simmons University. > Library. > Gifts. Lewis
Table of Contents:
  • Tomfoolery in earnest
  • The Jihād of St. Alban
  • Burton's antics
  • Remedial education in Professor Bayle's history class
  • Franklin's double take on rights
  • The smile of a philosophic historian.

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