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Between two stools

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An engaging and lively tour through the scatological, the flatulent and the cloacal in English literature over four centuries. Will appeal to cultural historians, and English literature scholars and students.|A serious investigation into how the scatological impulse has been represented in literature, from Chaucer to Swift. It will be of interest to students of English literature and cultural history.
Hardback
304 Pages
01-August-2012
$240.23
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Between two stools investigates the representation of scatology - humorous, carnivalesque, satirical, damning and otherwise - in English literature from the middle ages to the eighteenth century. Smith contends that the 'two stools' stand for two broadly distinctive attitudes towards scatology. The first is a carnivalesque, merry, even hearty disposition, typified by the writings of Chaucer and Shakespeare. The second is self-disgust, an attitude characterised by withering misanthropy and hypochondria. Smith demonstrates how the combination of high and low cultures manifests the capacity to run canonical and carnivalesque together so that sanctioned and civilised artefacts and scatological humour frequently co-exist in the works under discussion, evidence of an earlier culture's aptitude (now lost) to occupy a position between two stools. Of interest to cultural and literary historians, this ground-breaking study testifies to the arrival of scatology as an academic subject, at the same time recognising that it remains if not outside, then at least at the margins of conventional scholarship. -- .

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    Product Details
    ISBN-13
    9780719087943
    Author
    Peter J. Smith
    Publisher
    Manchester University Press
    Published
    01-August-2012
    Format
    Hardback
    Pages
    304

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    $240.23
    Ships in 3-5 business days

    Delivery estimate

    Hurry up! Current stock:

    Between two stools

    $240.23

    Description

    Between two stools investigates the representation of scatology - humorous, carnivalesque, satirical, damning and otherwise - in English literature from the middle ages to the eighteenth century. Smith contends that the 'two stools' stand for two broadly distinctive attitudes towards scatology. The first is a carnivalesque, merry, even hearty disposition, typified by the writings of Chaucer and Shakespeare. The second is self-disgust, an attitude characterised by withering misanthropy and hypochondria. Smith demonstrates how the combination of high and low cultures manifests the capacity to run canonical and carnivalesque together so that sanctioned and civilised artefacts and scatological humour frequently co-exist in the works under discussion, evidence of an earlier culture's aptitude (now lost) to occupy a position between two stools. Of interest to cultural and literary historians, this ground-breaking study testifies to the arrival of scatology as an academic subject, at the same time recognising that it remains if not outside, then at least at the margins of conventional scholarship. -- .

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