The Power of Laughter and Satire in Early Modern Britain: Political and Religious Culture, 1500-1820

Leading scholars show how laughter and satire in early modern Britain functioned in a variety of contexts both to affirm communal boundaries and to undermine them.

This interdisciplinary collection considers the related topics of satire and laughter in early modern Britain through a series of case studies ranging from the anti—monastic polemics of the early Reformation to the satirical invasion prints of the Napoleonic wars. Moving beyond the traditional literary canon to investigate printed...