Overview

Here is a witty and learned literary excursion into the world of humour and comic literature as revealed inter alia by the works of Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Oliver Goldsmith and Henry Fielding – leading in the second half to some glorious insights and observations provided by author’s life experience in the world of diplomacy. It is a rich and fascinating mix of literary idiom, the theatre of the absurd and the comic element of the human condition.

Full Product Details

Author:   Nils-Johan Jorgensen
Publisher:   Global Books
Imprint:   Renaissance Books
Edition:   New edition
Dimensions:   Width: 14.60cm , Height: 2.50cm , Length: 22.40cm
Weight:   0.400kg
ISBN:  

9781898823179

ISBN 10:   1898823170
Pages:   220
Publication Date:   01 May 2015
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Acknowledgements Induction Chapter 1: BEN JONSON AND HIS SOURCES Classical literary sources (Decorum, the comedies of Plautus and Terence, the Ridiculous) Medieval Sources: the Morality Play and the Interludes The Great Chain and Man as Microcosm Ancient medical theory and Renaissance psychology The character sketch Early Humour plays (George Chapman, Henry Porter) Chapter 2: HUMOROUS CHARACTERIZATION IN THE COMEDIES OF BEN JONSON In humour Out of humour Volpone, Epicoene, The Alchemist, Bartholomew Fair Chapter 3: THE INFLUENCE OF JONSON ON SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURY COMEDY Richard Brome James Shirley Thomas Shadwell Colley Cibber The Sons of Ben Margareth Cavendish Aphra Behn James Miller Oliver Goldsmith Richard Brinsley Sheridan Chapter 4: THE INTRUSION OF HUMOROUS CHARACTERIZATION INTO THE ENGLISH NOVEL Henry Fielding Tobias Smollett Chapter 5: THE MEANING OF THE COMIC Chapter 6: NOMADIC HUMOURS Where did the humours go Berlin 1900 Fabulous Hilarious An ever-closer union Identity mix-up Chameleon An exchange of notes Visiting card Holy See Sisyphean diplomatic challenge Laughter above The laughing philosopher Chapter 7: UNCONSCIOUS REVELATION Postscript Bibliography Index

Reviews

I was amused by your deft conjunction of the world of comic literature and the world of diplomacy. Professor Ian Donaldson, Oxford University

"""I was amused by your deft conjunction of the world of comic literature and the world of diplomacy."" Professor Ian Donaldson, Oxford University"

Author Information

Ambassador Nils-Johan Jørgensen was educated at the universities of Oslo and Oxford (Norway Scholar at Wadham) and was Research Fellow at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI). As a Norwegian career diplomat he served in Brussels, Copenhagen, Harare, Tokyo, Bonn and Dar es Salaam. He retired in 2001. He is the author of books and articles on European integration, international development, Southern Africa and Germany and Japan, including Norge mot Europa? (Norway towards/against Europe?), Copenhagen, 1981, Nytt liv bak taken (A new life behind the haze in Zimbabwe), Oslo, 1989, and Japan og Tyskland. Gjenvinning og makt (Japan and Germany. Restoration and Power), Oslo, 1997. He is also author of Culture and Power in Germany and Japan: The Spirit of Renewal, Global Oriental, 2006.

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