Pure Filth: Ethics, Politics, and Religion in Early French Farce

Awards:   Commended for Received Honorable Mention for the David Bevington Award for best new book in early drama studies, granted by the Medieval and Renaissance Drama Socie 2021 Commended for Received Honorable Mention for the David Bevington Award for best new book in early drama studies, granted by the Medieval and Renaissance Drama Society 2021 Short-listed for Chosen as a finalist for the 2019 George Freedley Memorial Award, granted by the Theatre Library Association 2021 Winner of Chosen as a finalist for the 2019 George Freedley Memorial Award, granted by the Theatre Library Association. Winner of Received Honorable Mention for the David Bevington Award for best new book in early drama studies, granted by the Medieval and Renaissance Drama Socie.
Author:   Noah D. Guynn ,  Ruth Mazo Karras
Publisher:   University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN:  

9780812251685


Pages:   277
Publication Date:   08 November 2019
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.

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Pure Filth: Ethics, Politics, and Religion in Early French Farce


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Awards

  • Commended for Received Honorable Mention for the David Bevington Award for best new book in early drama studies, granted by the Medieval and Renaissance Drama Socie 2021
  • Commended for Received Honorable Mention for the David Bevington Award for best new book in early drama studies, granted by the Medieval and Renaissance Drama Society 2021
  • Short-listed for Chosen as a finalist for the 2019 George Freedley Memorial Award, granted by the Theatre Library Association 2021
  • Winner of Chosen as a finalist for the 2019 George Freedley Memorial Award, granted by the Theatre Library Association.
  • Winner of Received Honorable Mention for the David Bevington Award for best new book in early drama studies, granted by the Medieval and Renaissance Drama Socie.

Overview

Full Product Details

Author:   Noah D. Guynn ,  Ruth Mazo Karras
Publisher:   University of Pennsylvania Press
Imprint:   University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN:  

9780812251685


ISBN 10:   0812251687
Pages:   277
Publication Date:   08 November 2019
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.

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Reviews

""[T]his book succeeds in showing farce's historical significance as an engaging ethical form. Noah Guynn makes a major, overdue contribution by giving this repertory its full due. The wit of his writing makes it a peculiarly refreshing tonic during this pandemic year."" (Speculum) ""Pure Filth is a scholarly yet very readable reappraisal of what farce is as a genre, and of how it is considerably subtler than we often assume. Guynn is commendably fair-minded in his criticism of those he disagrees with. He is scrupulously attentive to avoiding possible pitfalls of decontextualised analysis, whilst acknowledging that the performance history of early farce is always liable to be sketchy. All this makes for an exemplary study in the genre of farce."" (H-France) ""[T]here is no denying the merits of [Guynn's] project: it is thoughtful and thought-provoking, well grounded in relevant intertexts and critical theory, and groundbreaking in its success at reimagining the 'ludic, interactive, and unpredictable liveness of the festive stage.'"" (Renaissance Quarterly) ""Pure Filth is an expansive study of early French farce with a great deal to offer anyone interested in the transition from medieval to early modern drama...Rather than downplaying the superficiality, obscenity, and kitsch that characterize farce, Noah Guynn shows how these qualities allow the genre as a whole to imagine 'the possibility of a more ethical and just future precisely by disrupting a conventional language of virtue and vice and by demonstrating the scandalous lack of justice in the present moment.' His argument...is all the more remarkable and worth reading because it troubles along the way any settled boundary between the Middle Ages and postmodernity, theology and theory, compliance and rebellion."" (Romantic Review) ""[A] brilliant study . . . In Pure Filth, a book that will become a standard reference for people studying farce, Guynn has brought new life and energy to seemingly innocuous plays, showing his readers that the concerns addressed in farce are our concerns, that farceurs were engaged in a serious battle against repressive authority and hegemonic practices."" (EuropeNow) ""Employing a sensitive multilayered methodology comprised of literary close reading, contemporary theory, examination of material conditions of theater production and performance, and historical contextualization, Pure Filth successfully extracts us from the subversive versus conservative impasse that plagues scholarship on humor."" (Lisa Perfetti, Whitman College) ""This is a major study of a sizable body of texts that has tended to be marginalized in mainstream literary studies. Using an array of theoretical tools (poststructuralist, anthropological, feminist, and queer), Noah D. Guynn offers a sophisticated and subtle view of works more often perceived as having little literary merit and sometimes rather crudely read through a functionalist lens."" (Simon Gaunt, King's College London)


[A] brilliant study . . . In Pure Filth, a book that will become a standard reference for people studying farce, Guynn has brought new life and energy to seemingly innocuous plays, showing his readers that the concerns addressed in farce are our concerns, that farceurs were engaged in a serious battle against repressive authority and hegemonic practices.--EuropeNow Employing a sensitive multilayered methodology comprised of literary close reading, contemporary theory, examination of material conditions of theater production and performance, and historical contextualization, Pure Filth successfully extracts us from the subversive versus conservative impasse that plagues scholarship on humor.--Lisa Perfetti, Whitman College This is a major study of a sizable body of texts that has tended to be marginalized in mainstream literary studies. Using an array of theoretical tools (poststructuralist, anthropological, feminist, and queer), Noah D. Guynn offers a sophisticated and subtle view of works more often perceived as having little literary merit and sometimes rather crudely read through a functionalist lens.--Simon Gaunt, King's College London


Employing a sensitive multilayered methodology comprised of literary close reading, contemporary theory, examination of material conditions of theater production and performance, and historical contextualization, Pure Filth successfully extracts us from the subversive versus conservative impasse that plagues scholarship on humor. -Lisa Perfetti, Whitman College This is a major study of a sizable body of texts that has tended to be marginalized in mainstream literary studies. Using an array of theoretical tools (poststructuralist, anthropological, feminist, and queer), Noah D. Guynn offers a sophisticated and subtle view of works more often perceived as having little literary merit and sometimes rather crudely read through a functionalist lens. -Simon Gaunt, King's College London


Author Information

Noah D. Guynn is Professor of French and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Davis.

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