Laughter and Power in the Twelfth Century

by Peter J. A. Jones

Overview

Towards the end of the twelfth century, powerful images of laughing kings and saints began to appear in texts circulating at the English royal court. At the same time, contemporaries began celebrating the wit, humour, and laughter of King Henry II (r.1154-89) and his martyred Archbishop of Canterbury, Saint Thomas Becket (d.1170). Taking a broad genealogical approach, Laughter and Power in the Twelfth Century traces the emergence of this powerful laughter through an immersive study of medieval intellectual, literary, social, religious, and political debates. Focusing on a cultural renaissance in England, the study situates laughter at the heart of the defining transformations of the second half of the 1100s. With an expansive survey of theological and literary texts, bringing a range of unedited manuscript material to light in the process, Peter J. A. Jones exposes how twelfth-century writers came to connect laughter with spiritual transcendence and justice, and how this connection gave humour a unique political and spiritual power in both text and action. Ultimately, Jones argues that England's popular images of laughing kings and saints effectively reinstated a sublime charismatic authority, something truly rebellious at a moment in history when bureaucracy and codification were first coming to dominate European political life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198843542
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	12/24/2019
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	9.30(w) x 6.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Peter J. A. Jones, Lecturer in cultural history, University of Tyumen, School of Advanced Studies

Peter J. A. Jones is a researcher at the School of Advanced Studies at the University of Tyumen in Siberia. Previously he has worked as a teaching fellow in the History Department at University College London, as an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at the Jackman Humanities Institute, University of Toronto, as a visiting scholar at the Pembroke Center, Brown University, and as a Frances A. Yates Postdoctoral Fellow at the Warburg Institute.

As well as his work on medieval laughter and humour, Jones is currently developing two new projects. His next book, Democratic Dreams in Medieval Europe, is an investigation of the theological foundations of republican and democratic thought in the 1100s. He is also currently working on a multidisciplinary collaborative project, A History of Loving Things, which traces a history of loving relations between humans and nonhumans from Medieval Europe to the present day, via Imperial Russia and Oscar Wilde's Ireland.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Laughter and Power in Medieval Europe1. The Making of Powerful Laughter, c.1100-12002. Powerful Laughter in Twelfth-Century Narrative3. Laughter and Power at Henry II's Court4. Thomas Becket, The Laughing Saint5. Henry II, The Laughing KingConclusion: Between Laughing Saint & Laughing KingAppendix: Henry's CourtiersBibliography

Editorial Reviews

"...a splendidly original and eloquent book. Jones succeeds admirably in demonstrating the value of dissecting laughter: how it intersected with power, how it was transformed during this period, and why it merits close contextual reading from medievalists of various disciplines, not just those concerned directly with humor, satirical literature, and the history of the emotions. This is one of those books that will excite and reward on each rereading." — William Kynan Wilson, The Open University, Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies

From the Publisher