"…Bristol has written a worthwhile and stimulating book that places the theatrical experience in a new and illuminating historical context" – Theatre Survey"Bristol’s is a complex and impressive argument, making us reconsider traditional evaluations of individual plays" – Times Higher Education Supplement"In Carnival and Theater, Michael Bristol presents a careful blend of literary criticism and social history. With its sophisticated theoretical framework and its convincing demonstration of the polyvocal and multi-layered nature of cultural production, Carnival and Theater provides and exemplary model of cultural criticism that will be valuable to scholars from a variety of disciplines and perspectives" – Journal of Social History

• Acknowledgements; Part I: Theoretical Perspective 1. Playing the old works historically 2. The social function of festivity 3. Carnival and plebeian culture; Party II: The Texts of Carnival 4. Travesty and social order 5. Butchers and fishmongers 6.'A complete exit from the present order of life’; Part III: Theater and the Structure of Authority 7. Authority and the author function 8. The dialectic of laughter 9. Clowning and devilment; Part IV: Carnivalized Literature 10. Wedding feast and charivari 11. Treating death as a laughing matter 12. The festive agon: the politics of Carnival; Notes; Bibliography; Index