The comic text : patterns and images in the Old French fabliaux / Brian J. Levy.
| Author/creator | Levy, B. J. |
| Format | Book |
| Publication Info | Amsterdam ; Atlanta, GA : Rodopi, 2000. |
| Description | 312 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm. |
| Subjects |
| Series | Faux titre ; no. 186 Faux titre ; no. 186. ^A474480 |
| Contents | Chapter 1 Comic Inversion: A Fabliau Bestiary 31 -- Chapter 2 Laughing at Life: The Dice and the Dance 79 -- Chapter 3 Laughing at Life: In Deep Water 121 -- Chapter 4 The Comic Taboo: The Devil to Pay 160 -- Chapter 5 The Comic Taboo: The Best Medicine? 197 -- Conclusion: Comic Inversion: Fortune's Wheel 239. |
| Review | "This book offers a close analysis of the Old French fabliaux, that medieval corpus of short comic tales in narrative verse celebrated (something notorious) for their irreverence and sexual content. It picks out certain key images - such as gambling, illness, and damnation - which develop into themes and motifs running through all the texts, and which add layers of ironic patterning to the essential subject-matter and narrative of each fabliau. These elements, in many respects the 'small print' of the joke, furnish the comic text with many rhythms and echoes, all contributing to the ludic, adversarial nature of the text. They are extremely flexible, serving as a rhetoric of depiction that extends from broad comic motif to the lightest triggering of a mocking smile. This volume will be of interest to all students of medieval culture, Old French literature, and the development of the short or comic narrative."--Jacket |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (pages 273-312) and index. |
| Other forms | Also issued online. |
| Issued in other form | Online version: Levy, B.J. (Brian Joseph). Comic text. Amsterdam ; Atlanta, GA : Rodopi, 2000 |
| Genre/form | Criticism, interpretation, etc. |
| ISBN | 9042004290 (paperback) |
| ISBN | 9789042004290 (paperback) |