A burlesque biography meaning

Literary, dramatic or musical work or genre

For other uses, see Burlesque (disambiguation).

A burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects.^[1] The word is loaned from French and derives from the Italian burlesco, which, in turn, is derived from the Italian burla – a joke, ridicule or mockery.^[2][3]

Burlesque overlaps with caricature, parody and travesty, and, in its theatrical form, with extravaganza, as presented during the Victorian era.^[4] The word "burlesque" has been used in English in this literary and theatrical sense since the late 17th century.

It has been applied retrospectively to works of Chaucer and Shakespeare and to the Graeco-Roman classics.^[5] Contrasting examples of literary burlesque are Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock and Samuel Butler's Hudibras.