Laughter in Ancient Rome (82 page)

laughter, Roman oratorical,
19
,
54
,
99–100
,
105–9
; aggressive,
120–23
; anxieties concerning,
124–25
; backfiring of,
107–8
,
118
,
125
; causes of,
107
,
109
,
111
,
113
,
115–19
,
124
,
170
; Cicero’s use of,
95
; the dishonorable in,
125
; objects of,
116
; in
On the Orator,
28
,
35
,
107–8
,
109–23
,
212
,
223n1
,
225n23
; questions concerning,
109
,
111
; relationship to mimicry,
119
,
160
,
167–72
; risks of,
115–20
; as Roman cultural product,
110–11
; in Roman literature,
240n26
; rules for,
112–13
,
117
,
120–21
,
122
.
See also
wit, Roman oratorical

laughter, Roman women’s,
157–60
; and animal noise,
157
,
158
; braying,
158
; Catullus on,
159–60
,
171
; gendered performance of,
259n5
; in
Petronius,
171–72

laughter, scripted: causes of,
16
,
223n53
; in classical Latin literature,
16–17
,
223n51
; in
The Eunuch,
8–11
,
14
,
16
; in Greek comedy,
222n34
; in
Heauton Timorumenus,
16–17
; in Joyce,
36
,
228n50
; in Roman comedy,
8–17

laughter, uncontrollable,
16
; Aristotle on,
220n9
; Claudius’s,
133
; death following,
177
,
265n92
; myth of,
43–44
,
116
,
133
; of newsreaders,
43

laughter culture: Bakhtin on,
60–62
,
234n33
; cross-cultural,
5
; discourse of,
66
; middle class and,
60
,
66
; natural/cultural binary of,
42–48

laughter culture, European,
61
; diversity in,
213
; Roman influence on,
212
,
213

laughter culture, Roman,
4–5
,
79
; alternative traditions in,
157
; elite,
129
,
130
,
154
; geography of,
191
; versus Greek,
207–8
; Greek connections in,
85–95
; nonelite,
87–88
,
193
; in oratory,
110–11
; Plutarch in,
88
; primates in,
160–61
; women in,
3
,
157
,
159–60
,
219n7

“laughterhood,” Roman,
x
,
24
,
95
; bilingual,
89
; changes in,
69
; commodification of,
208
; versus Greek,
203
; role of mimes in,
167
; Saturnalia in,
63

laughter theories,
23–24
; ancient,
24
,
29
,
37
,
160
; animals in,
160
; Aristotle’s contributions to,
29
; “classical,”
24
,
29–36
; Greek,
35
,
110
,
248n46
; Hellenistic,
27
; history of,
49
; incongruity theory,
38
,
40
,
230n68
; intellectual genealogies of,
41
; laboratory-based,
38
; modern,
36–42
,
226n31
,
229n63
; oversimplification of,
37
,
40
; Pliny the Elder’s,
24–27
; relief theory,
38–39
; Renaissance,
212
; Roman,
24
,
27
,
29
,
34
,
35
,
212
; superiority theory,
37
,
39–40
,
41
,
230n65
; totalizing,
39–40
; universal,
50

Laurence, R.,
252n3

Laurence, Saint: joking by,
155
; martyrdom of,
154–55

Lautréamont, Comte de:
Les Chants de Maldoror,
44

Lee, Guy,
171

Leeman, A.D.,
228n48

Le Goff, Jacques,
230n71
,
231nn1–2
,
234n27
; on Bakhtin,
234n33
; on Isaac the patriarch,
233n22
; on smiling,
75

lepos
(wit), in Cicero,
114
,
115
.
See also
wit, Roman

Lessing, D.,
228n52

Lévi-Strauss, C.,
256n78

Lewis, Wyndham: laughter theory of,
36
,
228n52

Life of Aesop:
manuscript tradition of,
254n30
; master-slave relations in,
137–39

Ling, Roger,
58
,
59