Humour in Old English Literature deploys modern theories of humour to explore the style and content of surviving writing from early medieval England. The book analyses Old English riddles, wisdom literature, runic writing, the deployment of rhymes, and humour in heroic poetry, hagiography, and romance.

Drawing on a fine-tuned understanding of literary technique, the book presents a revisionist view of Old English literature, partly by reclaiming often-neglected texts and partly by uncovering ironies and embarrassments within well-established works, including Beowulf. Most surprisingly, Jonathan Wilcox engages the large body of didactic literature, pinpointing humour in two anonymous homilies along with extensive use in saints' lives. Each chapter ends by revealing a different audience that would have shared in the laughter.

Wilcox suggests that the humour of Old English literature has been scantily covered in past scholarship because modern readers expect a dour and serious corpus. Humour in Old English Literature aims to break that cycle by highlighting works and moments that are as entertaining now as they were then.

About the Author
Jonathan Wilcox is a professor of English at the University of Iowa.

Reviews
"[Wilcox] invites readers to imagine the smiles and laughter that might have derived from the ingenuity and intricacy of the Old English riddles... By reflecting on how Old English texts were most often read or recited for a group Wilcox is able to imagine how humour helped to form different "communities of laughter" in early medieval England." -- Mary C. Flannery * Times Literary Supplement *



Book Information
ISBN 9781487545307
Author Jonathan Wilcox
Format Hardback
Page Count 358
Imprint University of Toronto Press
Publisher University of Toronto Press
Weight(grams) 620g
Dimensions(mm) 231mm * 155mm * 30mm