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  • 2016

  • Sanchez, Reuben (2016): ’Je ne voudrais prononcer ces mots’. The influence of the French Fabliau on two scenes from Henry V. In: CAHIERS ELISABETHAINS (91), S. 34-50

    Abstract: Catherine’s language lesson in Henry V turns on the use of two bawdy French words, foutre and con – or rather, on the English words foot and gown which, when pronounced by the French speakers, sound like the bawdy words. In the courtship scene, Harry and Catherine avoid such words, yet each desires what they signify; both play a linguistic game in which they attempt to achieve what decorum prevents them from naming. Instead of direct and clear expression, this linguistic game involves figurative language and euphemism. A source for the linguistic principles underpinning both scenes is the medieval French fabliau.

  • 2009

  • Meisel, Joseph S. (2009): Humour and Insult in the House of Commons. The Case of Palmerston and Disraeli. In: PARLIAMENTARY HISTORY 28 (2), S. 228-245

    Abstract: Formal prohibitions on ‘personalities’ notwithstanding, a constant of parliamentary life is that members regularly insult one another. Within the conventions of 19th-century public decorum, humour served as an effective means for some politicians to deliver personal insults to their opponents.This article examines the nature of the personal attacks made by Disraeli and Palmerston on each other between 1837 and 1865, and describes how their styles of humorous insult were different but equally effective. Analysis of their political contest sheds new light on the careers of the two men, while also providing the basis for broader considerations about the changing nature and functions of humour in political discourse from the 18th to the 20th centuries.

  • 2003

  • Mohr, M. (2003): Defining dirt. Three early modern views of obscenity. In: TEXTUAL PRACTICE 17 (2), S. 253-275

    Abstract: This essay examines the workings of bad language in the early modem period, along with its social and political contexts - why and under what circumstances some words were deemed inappropriate for polite or moral discourse and literature. In early modern English, words such as "shit' or "fuck' were not considered "swearing', but rather occupied a separate category of "wanton' or "obscene' language. Thomas Elyot's The Boke Named the Governour , Desiderius Erasmus' De Copia and George Puttenham's The Arte of English Poesie pay particular attention to this category. They investigate it from different perspectives, but reach similar conclusions: obscene words have an offensive power in excess of their literal meaning, exposing body parts and actions that should be concealed to a greater degree than do their more decorous synonyms. These texts also agree that the rules of decorum which govern obscenity are extremely flexible, so much so that obscene words may be the most useful and even the most appropriate terms in certain circumstances.

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