Mock Ritual in the Modern Era
Beginning with the French eighteenth century and concluding in the present, this book explores complex interrelations between ritual and mockery, which is not infrequently the unofficial face of claims to rationality. The book is particularly concerned with how the mocking and parodying of ritual of...
| Authors: | ; |
|---|---|
| Format: | Electronic Book |
| Language: | English |
| Subito Delivery Service: | Order now. |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
New York, NY
Oxford University Press
2022
|
| In: | Year: 2022 |
| Series/Journal: | Oxford scholarship online
|
| Further subjects: | B
21st century
B 2015 |
| Online Access: |
Inhaltsverzeichnis (Aggregator) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Parallel Edition: | Erscheint auch als: 9780197637432 |
| Summary: | Beginning with the French eighteenth century and concluding in the present, this book explores complex interrelations between ritual and mockery, which is not infrequently the unofficial face of claims to rationality. The book is particularly concerned with how the mocking and parodying of ritual often associated with modern rationalism may itself become ritualized, and other ways in which supposedly sham ritual may survive its "outing." Just as the very concept of ritual is seen by anthropologists and others as intimately related to modernity (at once the site of its invention and the reflection of an antiritualism associated with secular societies), so this book traces the evolution of what the authors call mock ritual, in various forms, throughout the modern era, relying on literary, historical, and anthropological texts as well as encyclopedias, newspapers, and films. It places famous eighteenth- and nineteenth-century authors in dialogue with contemporary popular culture, from Diderot, Sterne, and Flaubert to the TV shows Survivor and Judge Judy, and from Voltaire to the Charlie Hebdo tragedy of 2015. The authors' use of literary texts in addressing anthropological questions has precedents in the work of Georges Bataille, among others, who viewed literature as "the principal heir" and a continuation of "the game of religions." Ritualistic and mock ritualistic aspects of comedy and ridicule are considered along with those, notably, of sexuality, medicine, art, education, and justice. In addition to a chapter on dueling, the book contains a postscript that considers various aspects of these subjects in the contemporary world. |
|---|---|
| Item Description: | Includes bibliographical references and index |
| ISBN: | 0197637469 |
| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780197637432.001.0001 |