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Laughter [ Communication ]

… Abstract Laughter was considered fundamental to sociability in eighteenth-century Britain, but it was a complex social signal: as … the epitome of politeness, while an uncontrolled guffaw – especially triggered by a ‘lowbrow’ joke – was anything but. Laughter was scrutinised with vigour by notable thinkers and theorists of sociability; broaching issues of wit, … sincerity, taste and bodily control, nothing exposes the anxieties and aspirations inherent in sociability quite like laughter. Practices > Communication Keywords Laughter humour Wit Taste Politeness impoliteness Manners civil society In …

English theatre in Enlightenment France [ Literary & Artistic genres ]

… French theatre, suffused with this spirit, underwent a profound transformation that affected comedy in particular. Laughter was no longer the preordained response to a theatrical performance: the fate of the exemplary characters was …

Private theatre performances [ Politics & Society ]

… oubliée (Paris: Champion, 2015), p. 519. What mattered most was the idea of community: the sharing of tears and laughter where, for the length of a performance, all social differences were abolished. The duchess du Maine, the duc …

Conviviality [ Eating & Drinking / Rituals & Ceremonies / Character / Social interaction ]

… and Tory Westminster, 1780–1880 ‘   Parliamentary History (vol. 24, 2005), p. 183-206. Dickie, Simon, Cruelty and Laughter: Forgotten Comic Literature and the Unsentimental Eighteenth Century (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2011). … Political Language, Ritual, and Symbol in England, 1790-1850 (Oxford University Press, 1994). Gatrell, Vic, City of Laughter: Sex and Satire in Eighteenth-Century London (New York: Walker and Company, 2006). Hawley, Judith, ‘ Taste and …

Punch bowls [ Food & Drink ]

… of the punchbowl played a material role in generating encounters marked by good fellowship.  4 . Vic Gatrell, City of Laughter: Sex and Satire in Eighteenth-Century London (London: Atlantic, 2006) This kind of sociability was, arguably, …

Touch and sociability [ Communication ]

… Pocket Library or Parental Monitor (Edinburgh, 1793). But see p. 21 for concerns about spontaneous conduct, such as laughter or showing spirit while dancing, being read for deeper and damning significance. 7 . Bonnie Hain and Carole … The Origins of Sex: A History of the First Sexual Revolution (London, Allen Lane, 2012). Dickie, Simon, Cruelty and Laughter: Forgotten Comic Literature and the Unsentimental Eighteenth Century (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, …