Research Catalog

Title

Humour in Dutch culture of the Golden Age / Rudolf M. Dekker.

Author

Dekker, Rudolf.

Publication

New York : Palgrave, 2001.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

viii, 187 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, portraits; 23 cm

Summary

• "In the seventeenth century the Dutch were a surprisingly humorous people. There was a great demand for jestbooks and farces, and many painters specialised in comical genres. After 1670, however, under pressure from Calvinist preaching and stricter rules of etiquette, laughter was more and more proscibed. This image of the serious Dutch still obscures our understanding of the Golden Age. A recently discovered manuscript with some 2,000 jokes reveals another, more light-hearted side to the Dutch character.
• The author, Aernout van Overbeke, was a lawyer and poet, who preferred a bohemian life-style. His manuscript is close to oral humour. Many of his jokes are crude, obscene and tasteless compared to those found in printed jestbooks, but they throw new light on the prevailing attitudies towards sexuality, illness, social relationships and religion.
• Hundreds of anecdotes about friends and acquaintances, ranging from the Princes of Orange to painters and poets, show how jokes were used and make it clear how important humour once was as a part of Dutch culture."--BOOK JACKET.

Uniform Title

Lachen in de Gouden Eeuw. English

Alternative Title

Lachen in de Gouden Eeuw.

Subjects

• Dutch wit and humor, Pictorial
• Dutch wit and humor > History and criticism
• Dutch literature > 1500-1800 > History and criticism

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

1. The Laughing Dutch. Lost cheerfulness. The etiquette of laughter. Everyday humour -- 2. Humour in Word and Image. Reading for pleasure. The heyday of the jestbook. Visual humour -- 3. Aernout van Overbeke and His Jokes. Aernout van Overbeke. The Anecdotes. Autobiographical humour. No one gets away with it -- 4. Polarity and Inversion. The straight and the crooked. Men and women. Parents and children. In sickness and in health. Us and them. Heaven and hell. Conclusion: The Return of Laughter.

ISBN

0333746740

LCCN

00066587

OCLC

• 196035518
• ocn196035518
• SCSB-4135232

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries