Where the Middle Ages Begin
The Humorist Void: The Clown’s Balancing Act throughout History Loera, Stephanie History in the Making: Journal of History, California State University, San Bernardino, Vol. 1, (2008) Abstract The image of the clown has held a myriad of aesthetic positions throughout Western history. Traces of this figure are reflected in the current image of the modern and more […]
The Depiction of Jews in the Carnival Plays and Comedies of Hans Folz and Hans Sachs in Early Modern Nuremberg By John D. Martin Baylor Journal of Theatre and Performance, Vol.3:2 (2006) Introduction: Bakhtin’s theory of the social function of the carnival play (Fastnachtspiel) characterized the primary function of carnival plays as one of relieving […]
Lewd Imaginings: Pedagogy, Piety, and Peformance in Late Medieval East Anglia Sebastian, John Thomas PhD Dissertation, Cornell University, August (2004) Abstract This dissertation explores clerical and lay desires for spiritual teaching and learning at the end of the Middle Ages in England, desires that, while ostensibly contemplative, carried crucial ecclesiological, political, and literary implications. Where […]
Staging the Unstageable: Performing the Crucifixion in Late Medieval and Early Modern England By David Klausner Medieval English Theatre, Vol.30 (2008) Introduction: Through all his work on the editing of the Chester Plays and the county’s documentary records, his studies of the urban background to the Plays’ presentation, their theology, and their literary qualities, David […]
Holy Week commemorates the last days of Christ’s earthly presence, from his entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday to his crucifixion and resurrection.
A modern medieval mystery play: taking the “mystery” out of the Middle Ages By Robyn Lee Bernadette Gram Master’s Thesis: California State University, Sacramento, 2010 Abstract: The Middle Ages in Europe is commonly referred to (at least as a popular culture stereotype) as the “Dark Ages.” The popular conception of this time is one where […]
The medieval playwrights take the brief thirteen-verse account from the fourth chapter of Genesis and expand it into a play—the N-town version is the shortest of the medieval Cain and Abel plays and the Wakefield version is the longest.
Genre as Context in the Alliterative Morte Arthure Whetter, K.S. Arthuriana 20.2 (2010) Abstract Genre remains an important context for teaching and understanding literature. The genre of the Alliterative Morte is epic-heroic. This genre is dominated by a focus on heroes and their concern with honor, glory and martial achievement. Such values and heroes have potentially […]
Dish to cash, cash to ash : the last Roman parasite and the birth of a comic profession Vidovic, Goran MA Thesis in Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest, May (2009) Abstract The subject of the thesis is the unconventional role of the parasite Mandrogerus in the early fifth-century Latin comedy, the Querolus. The topos of parasitic […]
Irony as illumination: didactic communication in the verbal texture of the Mystery Cycles Bates, Linda R. Marginalia, Vol. 3 (2006) Abstract In the sculptures and rose windows of Laon Cathedral, Emile Mâle observes that ‘the truths of the Scriptures are everywhere imaged in their most mysterious form, the verities of the New Testament disguised in […]
Cripping the Middle Ages, Medievalizing Disability Theory Wheatley, Edward The University of Michigan Press, (2010) Abstract This event shocks modern readers with its calculated cruelty toward and humiliation of the four blind men, who are called upon to “perform” their blindness in a contest focused less on the killing of the pig than on the injuries […]
Physical Sight and Spiritual Light in Three Sixteenth-Century Plays of the Low Countries Steenbrugge, Charlotte Marginalia, Vol.3 (2006) Abstract I shall investigate the representation of physical blindness as spiritual blindness and of acquiring the capacity to see light as spiritual rebirth in three sixteenth-century plays of the Low Countries: Tspel van Maria ghecompareirt by de […]
Time and the N-Town Cycle: Establishing Man’s Relation to God through Time Majumdar, Monica Marginalia,Vol. 4, (2005-2006) Cambridge Yearbook Abstract The N-Town Cycle celebrates the glory and mercy of God, and concentrates on man in relation to God. In its dramatic reenactment of history, the play uses Time to distinguish man and God. Certain characters […]
Sensing Christ in the Resurrection plays of N-town Henry, Joni Marginalia, Vol. 6, (2006-2007 ) Cambridge Yearbook Abstract Seeing, hearing and touching the body of Christ are actions repeatedly emphasised in the Resurrection plays of N-town. These physical encounters enact the historical proofs of the Resurrection claimed in the Gospels and in apocryphal narratives. At […]
In these pages I will endeavour to set Celestina’s skills in the context of making perfume and uses of it in the early 16th century.
Do Medieval and Renaissance Androids Presage the Posthuman? LaGrandeur, Kevin Comparative Literature and Culture, Volume 12, Issue 3, (September 2010) Article 3 Abstract In his article “Do Medieval and Renaissance Androids Presage the Posthuman?” Kevin LaGrandeur analyzes the relationships between literary images of artificial humans associated with medieval alchemists and alchemy, their modified reemergence in the […]
Remembering Doomsday:Memoria in late medieval English drama and iconography Iseppi, Laura Word & Image, 25: 1 (2009) Abstract Much critical attention has been devoted in recent years to the analysis of the medieval artes memorativae. The concern with the arts of memory, as exemplified by the recently collected translations of passages from influential artes edited by […]
The N-Town Trials and the Image of the Community Flood, Victoria Marginalis, Vol. 8, Cambridge Yearbook (2007-2008) Abstract In his game theory V.A. Kolve argues that within the Corpus Christi cycles ‘the duration of the play is a momentary interval in, and abstention from, the real concerns of life’. However, the division between the play […]
The Annunciation as Model of Meditation: Stillness, Speech and Transformation in Middle English Drama and Lyric Marginalia, Vol. 2, Cambridge Yearbook (2004-2005) Saetveit Miles, Laura Abstract The Annunciation to the Virgin Mary, portrayed in the Gospel of Luke 1: 26-38, is the moment when the Godhead becomes incarnate in human flesh and begins the Christian […]
Breikocher Josef: The Medieval Origins of a Grotesque Comic Motif in the German Christmas Play By Martin W. Walsh Paper presented at the 2004 SITM conference in Elx (2004) Introduction: In the 1557-59 supplement to Georg Wickram’s popular collection of comic stories, Das Rollwagenbüchlin (The Little Stagecoach Book) there is a tale entitled Von einem Weyhenacht […]
Monasteries as Financial Patrons and Promoters of Local Performance in Late Medieval and Early Tudor England By Christine Sustek Williams Quidditas, Vol. 26 – 27 (2005-2006) Abstract: The elaborate cycle plays produced in the larger, wealthy municipalities of York, Chester, Wakefield and Coventry receive the lion’s share of attention among scholars of medieval theatre. Until […]
The City of York and its ‘Play of Pageants’ By Peter Meredith Early Theatre, Vol 3 (2000) Abstract: This paper first presents a brief overview of York’s physical growth and status as a mercantile city and a county in its own right, and its relationships with the monarchy as they appear in royal entries. It […]
Medievalism and Joan Grigsby’s The Orchid Door Brother Anthony Medieval and Early Modern English Studies, Volume 17 No. 1 (2009) Abstract The Celtic revival of the 1890s and the opening years of the 20th century was marked by a series of works, poems, fiction and dramas, published under the name of Fiona MacLeod, supposedly a […]
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