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oapen-20.500.12657-621592024-03-27T14:14:47Z Persistence of Folly Lande, Joel B. Literature: history and criticism Literary studies: plays and playwrights European history thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSB Literary studies: general Joel B. Lande’s Persistence of Folly challenges the accepted account of the origins of German theater by focusing on the misunderstood figure of the fool, whose spontaneous and impish jest captivated audiences, critics, and playwrights from the late sixteenth through the early nineteenth century. Lande radically expands the scope of literary historical inquiry, showing that the fool was not a distraction from attempts to establish a serious dramatic tradition in the German language. Instead, the fool was both a fixture on the stage and a nearly ubiquitous theme in an array of literary critical, governmental, moral-philosophical, and medical discourses, figuring centrally in broad-based efforts to assign laughter a proper time, place, and proportion in society. Persistence of Folly reveals the fool as a cornerstone of the dynamic process that culminated in the works of Lessing, Goethe, and Kleist. By reorienting the history of German theater, Lande’s work conclusively shows that the highpoint of German literature around 1800 did not eliminate irreverent jest in the name of serious drama, but instead developed highly refined techniques for integrating the comic tradition of the stage fool. 2023-03-29T15:51:33Z 2023-03-29T15:51:33Z 2018 book ONIX_20230329_9781501727122_143 9781501727122 9781501727108 9781501727139 9781501727115 https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/62159 eng Signale: Modern German Letters, Cultures, and Thought application/pdf Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International 9781501727122.pdf http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501727108/persistence-of-folly Cornell University Press Cornell University Press and Cornell University Library 06a447d4-1d09-460f-8b1d-3b4b09d64407 9781501727122 9781501727108 9781501727139 9781501727115 Cornell University Press and Cornell University Library 366 Ithaca open access
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Joel B. Lande’s Persistence of Folly challenges the accepted account of the origins of German theater by focusing on the misunderstood figure of the fool, whose spontaneous and impish jest captivated audiences, critics, and playwrights from the late sixteenth through the early nineteenth century. Lande radically expands the scope of literary historical inquiry, showing that the fool was not a distraction from attempts to establish a serious dramatic tradition in the German language. Instead, the fool was both a fixture on the stage and a nearly ubiquitous theme in an array of literary critical, governmental, moral-philosophical, and medical discourses, figuring centrally in broad-based efforts to assign laughter a proper time, place, and proportion in society. Persistence of Folly reveals the fool as a cornerstone of the dynamic process that culminated in the works of Lessing, Goethe, and Kleist. By reorienting the history of German theater, Lande’s work conclusively shows that the highpoint of German literature around 1800 did not eliminate irreverent jest in the name of serious drama, but instead developed highly refined techniques for integrating the comic tradition of the stage fool.
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