The Power Of Satire: Magic, Ritual, Art
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
Long before satire became the wit of the civilised page, it was a weapon of terrifying power — a curse, a spell, a ritual act capable of destroying reputations and even, it was believed, lives. Robert C. Elliott's The Power of Satire: Magic, Ritual, Art traces the astonishing genealogy of satirical expression from the incantations of pre-classical antiquity, through the magic traditions of Greek and Roman culture, to the rich oral traditions of the Ashanti and Eskimo peoples, ultimately arriving at its sophisticated embodiments in the works of Shakespeare, Molière, Swift, Wyndham Lewis, and Roy Campbell. Elliott argues with scholarly precision and intellectual flair that satire is not merely a literary mode but a primal force embedded in the human psyche, carrying within it the residual power of ancient ritual. His study illuminates the deep, often unsettling continuities between primitive magical practice and the refined literary art of the great satirists, revealing how the most celebrated works of comic condemnation carry within them the ghost of the shaman's curse. This is a work that permanently alters the way one reads — and fears — the satirist's pen.
Author: Robert C. Elliott
Format: Paperback
Genre: Literary theory
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
Long before satire became the wit of the civilised page, it was a weapon of terrifying power — a curse, a spell, a ritual act capable of destroying reputations and even, it was believed, lives. Robert C. Elliott's The Power of Satire: Magic, Ritual, Art traces the astonishing genealogy of satirical expression from the incantations of pre-classical antiquity, through the magic traditions of Greek and Roman culture, to the rich oral traditions of the Ashanti and Eskimo peoples, ultimately arriving at its sophisticated embodiments in the works of Shakespeare, Molière, Swift, Wyndham Lewis, and Roy Campbell. Elliott argues with scholarly precision and intellectual flair that satire is not merely a literary mode but a primal force embedded in the human psyche, carrying within it the residual power of ancient ritual. His study illuminates the deep, often unsettling continuities between primitive magical practice and the refined literary art of the great satirists, revealing how the most celebrated works of comic condemnation carry within them the ghost of the shaman's curse. This is a work that permanently alters the way one reads — and fears — the satirist's pen.