The Edinburgh Companion to Nonsense
Published on 17. November 2021
Book
Hardback
408 pages
978-1-4744-2384-7 (ISBN)
Description
The Edinburgh Companion to Nonsense is the first comprehensive treatment of its subject across historical periods, languages, cultures, and theoretical frameworks. Written by scholars in a range of disciplines from philosophy to music as well as literary critics and linguists, it provides the first overview of nonsense as a vital dimension of human creativity, drawing on insights from theology to queer studies, from India to Russia, and from Ancient Greece to the late modernism of the twentieth century. Responding to a growing interest in nonsense within the academy and reflecting the diversity of understandings that the term inspires, this book aims to advance nonsense as a developing critical field, and to inspire new areas of research.
Reviews / Votes
This is the most capacious and thought-provoking volume of essays on nonsense yet published. Barton and Williams's animating question - "What kinds of things can we say or feel when we make nonsense that we cannot when we make sense?'' - can be felt throughout the book as it moves appealingly across periods and continents. The Edinburgh Companion to Nonsense is a brilliant study of the many lives that nonsense can live. It will become a seminal collection. -- Matthew Bevis, Keble College, Oxford UniversityMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Edinburgh
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
17 black & white illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 244 mm
Width: 170 mm
Thickness: 21 mm
Weight
757 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4744-2384-7 (9781474423847)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Anna Barton
Edinburgh Companion to Nonsense
E-Book
11/2021
1st Edition
Edinburgh University Press
€81.99
Available for download
Anna Barton
Edinburgh Companion to Nonsense
E-Book
11/2021
1st Edition
Edinburgh University Press
€81.99
Available for download
Persons
Anna Barton is Professor of Nineteenth-Century Literature at the University of Sheffield. Previous publications include, The Edinburgh Companion to Nonsense (with James Williams) (2021), Nineteenth-Century Poetry and Liberal Though: Forms of Freedom (2017), In Memoriam: A Reading Guide (2012) and Tennyson's Name: Identity and Responsibility in the Poetry of Alfred, Lord Tennyson (2008). James Williams is a Senior Lecturer in English at the University of York. He is the author of Edward Lear (Liverpool University Press, 2018) and co-editor, with Matthew Bevis, of Edward Lear and the Play of Poetry (OUP, 2016). He has published articles on Alfred Tennyson, Samuel Beckett, Lewis Carroll, and Victorian comic verse.
Content
AcknowledgementsList of Illustrations
Introduction: Companionable Nonsense - Anna Barton and James Williams
Part I: Notes towards a History of English Nonsense
1. Buba, Blictrix, Bufbaf: Medieval Theory and Practice of Nonsense - Jordan Kirk
2. 'The Best Fooling': Every Man Out of His Humour, Twelfth Night, and Early Modern English Nonsense Games - Rebecca Fall
3. Nonsense in the Age of Reason - Freya Johnston
4. 'The Light of Sense | Goes Out': Romantic Poetry and Victorian Nonsense Poetry - Peter Swaab
5. Victorian Nonsense and Its Kinships - Martin Dubois
6. Shady Pleasures: Modernist Nonsense - Noreen Masud
7. Mid-Century Nonsense and Destructive Mockery - Adam Piette
Part II: Global Nonsenses
8. In Search of Ancient Greek Nonsense - Sara Chiarini
9. Traditional Moorings, Modern Practices: Indian Literary Nonsense - Sumanyu Satpathy
10. Signs and Wonders: Two Approaches to Nonsense in Russia - Jamie Rann
11. 'What's the French for fiddle-de-dee?': Nonsense in French - Alexandra Lukes
12. Italian Nonsense: Tradition, Translation, Translocation, Transcodification (and a Trinity) - Alessandro Giammei
Part III: Contexts and Connections
13. English 'hibber-gibber' and the 'jargon of France': Rabelaisian Nonsense in Translation - Hugh Roberts
14. Musical Foundations of Nonsense - Michael Heyman
15. Doubtful Girls and Silly Women: Nonsense and Gender - Anna Barton
16. Queer Nonsense: Query? - Hugh Haughton
17. Humans, and Other Nonsense Animals - Cassie Westwood
18. Nonsense Among the Philosophers - Michael Potter
19. 'Word beyond Speech': Nonsense and the Sacred - James Williams
Notes on Contributors
Introduction: Companionable Nonsense - Anna Barton and James Williams
Part I: Notes towards a History of English Nonsense
1. Buba, Blictrix, Bufbaf: Medieval Theory and Practice of Nonsense - Jordan Kirk
2. 'The Best Fooling': Every Man Out of His Humour, Twelfth Night, and Early Modern English Nonsense Games - Rebecca Fall
3. Nonsense in the Age of Reason - Freya Johnston
4. 'The Light of Sense | Goes Out': Romantic Poetry and Victorian Nonsense Poetry - Peter Swaab
5. Victorian Nonsense and Its Kinships - Martin Dubois
6. Shady Pleasures: Modernist Nonsense - Noreen Masud
7. Mid-Century Nonsense and Destructive Mockery - Adam Piette
Part II: Global Nonsenses
8. In Search of Ancient Greek Nonsense - Sara Chiarini
9. Traditional Moorings, Modern Practices: Indian Literary Nonsense - Sumanyu Satpathy
10. Signs and Wonders: Two Approaches to Nonsense in Russia - Jamie Rann
11. 'What's the French for fiddle-de-dee?': Nonsense in French - Alexandra Lukes
12. Italian Nonsense: Tradition, Translation, Translocation, Transcodification (and a Trinity) - Alessandro Giammei
Part III: Contexts and Connections
13. English 'hibber-gibber' and the 'jargon of France': Rabelaisian Nonsense in Translation - Hugh Roberts
14. Musical Foundations of Nonsense - Michael Heyman
15. Doubtful Girls and Silly Women: Nonsense and Gender - Anna Barton
16. Queer Nonsense: Query? - Hugh Haughton
17. Humans, and Other Nonsense Animals - Cassie Westwood
18. Nonsense Among the Philosophers - Michael Potter
19. 'Word beyond Speech': Nonsense and the Sacred - James Williams
Notes on Contributors