The Fear of Laughter in Restoration Prose Fiction

  1. Jorge Figueroa Dorrego 1
  1. 1 Universidade de Vigo
    info

    Universidade de Vigo

    Vigo, España

    ROR https://ror.org/05rdf8595

Revista:
English Literature: theories, interpretations, contexts

ISSN: 2420-823X

Ano de publicación: 2018

Volume: 5

Páxinas: 113-130

Tipo: Artigo

DOI: 10.30687/EL/2420-823X/2018/05/007 GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openAcceso aberto editor

Outras publicacións en: English Literature: theories, interpretations, contexts

Resumo

This article draws on recent studies on the fear of derisive laughter (or ‘gelotophobia’) inorder to relate them to early modern comments on laughter and to the representation of that anxietyin some texts of Restoration prose fiction, and with a particular emphasis on Alexander Oldys’s TheFair Extravagant (1682). Gelotophobia is a variant of shame anxiety and a social phobia defined asthe pathological fear of being an object of laughter. Although the fear shown in the texts analysedis not pathological, it certainly reveals the strong pressure of the shame culture and gender politicsprevailing in Restoration England.

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