Burlesque
Burlesque is a term which refers to a literary, dramatic or musical work that caricatures the manner, style or subject of serious works and their subjects. Deriving from the Italian burla – a joke, ridicule or mockery. Another derivative from the Italian is burletta, which usually refers to a brief comic Italian (or, later, English) opera.
F.C.L. Bosman (1928, p. 394) notes a quaint paring of the two terms in the description of Dowling's 1834 work Othello Travestie as a "burlesque burletta".
Sources
Burlesque in Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burlesque)
Burletta in Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burletta)
Go to ESAT Bibliography
Return to
Return to The South African Context/General Terminology and Thematic Entries
Return to South African Theatre/Terminology and Thematic Entries
Return to South African Film /Terminology and Thematic Entries
Return to South African Media/Terminology and Thematic Entries
Return to The ESAT Entries
Return to Main Page