Humour, History and Politics in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages

Notes on contributors; Preface; List of abbreviations; Introduction: 'Don't worry, I've got the key' Guy Halsall; Part I. The Fate of Humorous Writing: 1. Laughter and humour in the early medieval Latin west Danuta Schanzer; 2. Humour and the everyday in Byzantium John Haldon; Part II. Humour and the Politics of Difference: 3. The lexicon of abuse: drunkenness and political illegitimacy in the late Roman world Mark Humphries; 4. Funny foreigners: laughing with the barbarians in late Antiquity Guy Halsall; 5. Liutprand of Cremona's sense of humour Ross Balzaretti; Part III. Humour, History and Politics in the Carolingian World: 6. 'He never even allowed his white teeth to be bared in laughter': the politics of humour in the Carolingian renaissance Matthew Innes; 7. Alcuin's Disputatio Pippini and the early medieval riddle tradition Martha Bayless; 8. Laughter after Babel's fall: misunderstanding and miscommunication in the ninth-century west Paul Kershaw; Index.