TY - BOOK ID - 134801844 TI - Laughter in ancient Rome PY - 2014 SN - 0520287584 0520958209 9780520958203 9781306662550 1306662559 9780520287587 9780520277168 0520277163 PB - Berkeley DB - UniCat KW - Laughter KW - Latin wit and humor KW - History KW - History and criticism. KW - Rome KW - Social life and customs. KW - ancient literary criticism. KW - ancient rome. KW - anthropology. KW - approachable scholarship. KW - classical literature. KW - conversational. KW - cultural studies. KW - essays on rhetoric. KW - funny. KW - history of ancient rome. KW - history of laughter. KW - history. KW - humor and drama. KW - humor. KW - inviting. KW - jokes. KW - laughter. KW - literary analysis. KW - monkey business. KW - performing arts. KW - purpose of laughter. KW - roman culture. KW - roman history. KW - roman humor. KW - roman joke book. KW - roman writing. KW - sather classical lectures. KW - theories of humor. UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:134801844 AB - What made the Romans laugh? Was ancient Rome a carnival, filled with practical jokes and hearty chuckles? Or was it a carefully regulated culture in which the uncontrollable excess of laughter was a force to fear-a world of wit, irony, and knowing smiles? How did Romans make sense of laughter? What role did it play in the world of the law courts, the imperial palace, or the spectacles of the arena? Laughter in Ancient Rome explores one of the most intriguing, but also trickiest, of historical subjects. Drawing on a wide range of Roman writing-from essays on rhetoric to a surviving Roman joke book-Mary Beard tracks down the giggles, smirks, and guffaws of the ancient Romans themselves. From ancient "monkey business" to the role of a chuckle in a culture of tyranny, she explores Roman humor from the hilarious, to the momentous, to the surprising. But she also reflects on even bigger historical questions. What kind of history of laughter can we possibly tell? Can we ever really "get" the Romans' jokes? ER -