A Cultural History of Humour: From Antiquity to the Present Day

Notes on contributors.

Preface.

Introduction: Humour and History: Jan Bremmer and Herman Roodenburg.

1. Jokes, Jokers and Jokebooks in Ancient Greek Culture: Jan Bremmer.

2. Cicero, Plautus and Roman Laughter: Fritz Graf.

3. Laughter in the Middle Ages: Jacques Le Goff.

4. Bakhtin and his Theory of Carnival: Aaron Gurevich.

5. Frontiers of the Comic in Early Modern Italy, c1350-1750: Peter Burke.

6. The Comic and the Counter Reformation in the Spanish Netherlands: Johan Verberckmoes.

7. Prose Jest-Books Mainly in the Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries in England: Derek Brewer.

8. To Converse Agreeably: Civility and the Telling of Jokes in Seventeenth-Century Holland: Herman Roodenburg.

9. How was Jan Steen Funny? Strategies and Functions of Comic Painting in the Seventeenth Century: Mariet Westermann.

10. Parliamentary Hilarity Inside the French Constitutional Assembly (1789-91): Antoine de Baecque.

11. Humour and the Public Sphere in Nineteenth-Century Germany: Mary Lee Townsend.

12. Humour, Laughter and the Field: Reflections from Anthropology: Henk Driessen.

13. Humour and History: A Research Bibliography: Johan Verberckmoes.

Index of Names.

Index of Subjects.