The Laughter of the Saints

'A notable, original work of scholarship, The Laughter of the Saints explores the relationship between humor and sanctity. Ryan D. Giles' broad ranging and interdisciplinary work convincingly demonstrates how the sacred and the profane could coexist in secular literary works without provoking scandal, offense, or repudiation. For medieval and early modern readers, the lives of the saints provided crucial points of reference, serving as both critical lens and fun house mirror, through which they could meditate upon and laugh at the intrinsic kinship between sin and virtue. I have no doubt but that this book will mark a milestone in Hispanic Medieval and Early Modern Studies.' -- Michael Gerli, Department of Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese, University of Virginia

The Laughter of the Saints examines this rich carnivalesque tradition of parodied holy men and women and traces their influence to the anti-heroes and picaresque roots of early modern novels such as Don Quixote.

Between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries in Spain, a large number of parodic works were produced that featured depictions of humourous, satirical, and comical saints. The Laughter of the Saints examines this rich carnivalesque tradition of parodied holy men and women and traces their influence to the anti-heroes and picaresque roots of early modern novels such as Don Quixote.

The first full-length treatment of the ways in which Spanish writers imitated religious depictions of saints' lives for comic purposes, Ryan D. Giles' erudite study explores the inversion of oaths, invocations, pious legends, and liturgical devotions. Analyzing a variety of texts from Libro de buen amor, to later works such as the Celestina, Carajicomedia, Lozana andaluza, and Lazarillo de Tormes, Giles not only sheds light on Golden Age Spanish literature, but also on the origins of the comic novel. A well-argued and convincing work, The Laughter of the Saints reveals the uproarious results of the collision of official and unofficial methods of storytelling.