"THE NATURAL PROPENSITY OF IMITATION": or, Pantomimic Poetics and the Rhetoric of Augustan Wit.
Drawing attention to the complex reciprocal relationship between commercialized leisure and commercial literature in the so-called "Age of Wit," this essay reconceives of the witty and witless in two important ways. Taking for granted, first of all, that wit is usually analyzed in terms of the effic...
| Publicado en: | Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies Vol. 9; no. 2; pp. 51 - 96 |
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| Formato: | Essay |
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University of Pennsylvania Press
Fall/WInter2009
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=45083810&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 45083810 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 15310485 DBLW jtl: Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies issn: 15310485 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Fall/WInter2009 vid: 9 iid: 2 pid: 4636 pub: University of Pennsylvania Press artinfo: ui: 45083810 10.1353/jem.0.0028 ppf: 51 ppct: 45 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P size: 1MB tig: atl: "THE NATURAL PROPENSITY OF IMITATION": or, Pantomimic Poetics and the Rhetoric of Augustan Wit. aug: au: DOMINGO, DARRYL P. su: Essays Wit & humor -- History & criticism Dance Mime Literary criticism Satire Harlequin (Fictional character) Early Modern Period (Literary period) sug: subj: Essays Wit & humor -- History & criticism Dance Mime Literary criticism Satire Harlequin (Fictional character) Early Modern Period (Literary period) ab: Drawing attention to the complex reciprocal relationship between commercialized leisure and commercial literature in the so-called "Age of Wit," this essay reconceives of the witty and witless in two important ways. Taking for granted, first of all, that wit is usually analyzed in terms of the efficacy of verbal language, the essay examines how and why debates concerning true and false wit were played out in physical terms--in this case, through the motions, gestures, and attitudes of the dancing body. Second of all, the essay attempts to account for the enduring, if unwitting, attractions of "false wit" by likening it to the tricks and transformations of contemporary English pantomime. Satirists of the 1720s, 1730s, and 1740s frequently invoke the unmeaning motion of Harlequin as a visual way of proscribing the verbal excesses of extravagant language. At the same time, apologists for pantomime associate Harlequin's "dumb Wit" with truth, reason, and the pattern of nature, claiming that the genre's corporeality allowed it to transcend the limitations and equivocations of words. The essay concludes that the popularity of pantomime contextualizes the Augustan reaction against false wit, in that it identifies a source of aesthetic pleasure in the public's eagerness to be duped by apparent sameness in difference. Early eighteenth-century readers enjoy luxuriant, illogical, and mixed metaphors, forced similes, and trifling jibes and quibbles for the same reason that early eighteenth-century spectators delight in the unexpected turns of pantomimic entertainment: in a world under the sway of Harlequin's magical slapstick, audiences derive satisfaction from being deceived. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Essay src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies is the property of University of Pennsylvania Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies holder: University of Pennsylvania Press dt: @attributes: year: 2009 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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