Overview

Mock Ritual in the Modern Era explores the complex interrelations between ritual and mockery, the latter of which is not infrequently the unofficial face of claims to rationality. McGinnis and Smyth consider 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."" This volume traces the evolution of ""mock ritual"" in various forms throughout the modern era, as found in literary, historical, and anthropological texts as well as encyclopedias, newspapers, and films. Mock Ritual in the Modern Era 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. Ritualistic and mock ritualistic aspects of comedy and ridicule are considered along with those, notably, of sexuality, medicine, art, education, and justice.

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9780197637432

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At the heart of this lively and astute study is the vexed entwinement of ritual with ridicule. In a briskly paced series of readings of literary works from Voltaire and Diderot to Michel Houellebecq and Charlie Hebdo, McGinnis and Smyth show us that while every ritual threatens to become a parody of itself, so does even the fiercest mockery of ritual inevitably assume its own ritualistic aspect. We are as ensnared today as were the writers and philosophers of the Enlightenment, in the joke of jokes: that to laugh at high seriousness is to claim a no less risible high seriousness for ourselves. * James English, John Welsh Centennial Professor of English, University of Pennsylvania * Imbued with a wide-ranging spirit of inquiry, this book takes us through a bold review of 'mock rituals': a complex category with a double meaning. The authors pursue their topic with gusto from eighteenth century French literature to a sweeping interpretation of contemporary issues. Much food for thought is in this feast of representations of rituals. * Pamela J. Stewart and Andrew J. Strathern, co-editors of The Palgrave Handbook of Anthropological Ritual Studies * Ranging in focus from Diderot to Charlie Hebdo, McGinnis and Smyth succeed brilliantly in providing us with a new cultural hermeneutics that both reveals and transcends the limitations of traditional literary analysis, cultural anthropology, and film and media theory. This capacious book offers nothing less than a theory of virtual sacrifice-that is to say, a new theory of sacrifice. * Robert Doran, Professor of French and Comparative Literature, University of Rochester *

At the heart of this lively and astute study is the vexed entwinement of ritual with ridicule. In a briskly paced series of readings of literary works from Voltaire and Diderot to Michel Houellebecq and Charlie Hebdo, McGinnis and Smyth show us that while every ritual threatens to become a parody of itself, so does even the fiercest mockery of ritual inevitably assume its own ritualistic aspect. We are as ensnared today as were the writers and philosophers of the Enlightenment, in the joke of jokes: that to laugh at high seriousness is to claim a no less risible high seriousness for ourselves. * James English, John Welsh Centennial Professor of English, University of Pennsylvania * Imbued with a wide-ranging spirit of inquiry, this book takes us through a bold review of 'mock rituals': a complex category with a double meaning. The authors pursue their topic with gusto from eighteenth century French literature to a sweeping interpretation of contemporary issues. Much food for thought is in this feast of representations of rituals. * Pamela J. Stewart and Andrew J. Strathern, co-editors of The Palgrave Handbook of Anthropological Ritual Studies * Ranging in focus from Diderot to Charlie Hebdo, McGinnis and Smyth succeed brilliantly in providing us with a new cultural hermeneutics that both reveals and transcends the limitations of traditional literary analysis, cultural anthropology, and film and media theory. This capacious book offers nothing less than a theory of virtual sacrifice-that is to say, a new theory of sacrifice. * Robert Doran, Professor of French and Comparative Literature, University of Rochester *

"At the heart of this lively and astute study is the vexed entwinement of ritual with ridicule. In a briskly paced series of readings of literary works from Voltaire and Diderot to Michel Houellebecq and Charlie Hebdo, McGinnis and Smyth show us that while every ritual threatens to become a parody of itself, so does even the fiercest mockery of ritual inevitably assume its own ritualistic aspect. We are as ensnared today as were the writers and philosophers of the Enlightenment, in the joke of jokes: that to laugh at high seriousness is to claim a no less risible high seriousness for ourselves. * James English, John Welsh Centennial Professor of English, University of Pennsylvania * Imbued with a wide-ranging spirit of inquiry, this book takes us through a bold review of 'mock rituals': a complex category with a double meaning. The authors pursue their topic with gusto from eighteenth century French literature to a sweeping interpretation of contemporary issues. Much food for thought is in this feast of representations of rituals. * Pamela J. Stewart and Andrew J. Strathern, co-editors of The Palgrave Handbook of Anthropological Ritual Studies * Ranging in focus from Diderot to Charlie Hebdo, McGinnis and Smyth succeed brilliantly in providing us with a new cultural hermeneutics that both reveals and transcends the limitations of traditional literary analysis, cultural anthropology, and film and media theory. This capacious book offers nothing less than a theory of virtual sacrifice-that is to say, a new theory of sacrifice. * Robert Doran, Professor of French and Comparative Literature, University of Rochester * The book is divided into an introduction, seven chapters, a summation, and a ""Concluding Unscientific Postscript."" It discusses the role of mockery in several, generally French, examples of cinema and literature. As the first full-length study of its kind, the book offers an insightful groundwork into mock ritual and how it can transform into genuine ritual, a beneficial source for academics discussing anything from religious practices to parody. * Rob Perry, Saint Mary's University, K'jipuktuk, Mi'km'ki - Halifax, Nova Scotia *"

Author Information

Reginald McGinnis is Professor of French at the University of Arizona. He is the author of Essai sur l'origine de la mystification and coeditor, with Fayçal Falaky, of Modes of Play in Eighteenth-Century France. John Vignaux Smyth is Professor of English at Portland State University. He is the author of The Habit of Lying.

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