Bawdy Humour in Mediaeval England: A Window into Society and Culture

This study offers a comprehensive and interdisciplinary examination of bawdy humour in mediaeval English culture, exploring its literary, performative, visual, and social dimensions. Drawing on a wide range of sources—from early fabliaux and mystery plays to manuscript marginalia, ecclesiastical records, and vernacular performance traditions—the author situates ribald humour within the broader frameworks of mediaeval theology, gender politics, class dynamics, and cultural resistance. Far from being peripheral or merely vulgar, bawdy humour emerges as a vital mode of expression that negotiated tensions between sacred and profane, elite and popular, normative and transgressive. Through detailed textual analysis and historical contextualisation, this volume reveals how comic representations of sexuality, bodily functions, and social inversion served as both entertainment and critique, shaping communal identity and challenging authority. This book will appeal to scholars of mediaeval literature, cultural history, performance studies, and the history of emotions, offering fresh insights into the subversive power of laughter in premodern society.