About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherCatholic University of America Press

ISBN-100813214971

ISBN-139780813214979

eBay Product ID (ePID)56995684

Product Key Features

Book TitleSacred Players : the Politics of Response in the Middle English Religious Drama

Number of Pages240 Pages

LanguageEnglish

TopicMedieval, Drama, European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Christianity / Literature & the Arts

Publication Year2007

GenreLiterary Criticism, Religion

AuthorHeather Hill-Vasquez

FormatHardcover

Dimensions

Item Height0.9 in

Item Weight16.2 Oz

Item Length8.6 in

Item Width7.1 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceTrade

LCCN2006-030541

SynopsisOffering a unique historical perspective to the study of medieval English drama, Heather Hill-Vasquez, in ""Sacred Players"", argues that different treatments of audience and performance in the early drama indicate that the performance life of the drama continued well beyond its traditional placement in medieval history into the Reformation and Renaissance eras. This notion has several significant implications for the study of other religious drama also previously relegated to the English medieval period. Rather than documents preserving a fixed sacred meaning, extant manuscripts present texts wed closely to the inherent fluidity of performance and to the flexibility of differing religious sensibilities. A consistently popular and powerful form of lay worship, the English religious drama in fact defined and reflected the varying nature of religious discourse and dramatic performance well into and beyond the Reformation. ""Sacred Players"" also argues that such a second life was driven by a focus on the role of audience response. Specifically, a politicizing of audience reception styles and devotional practices characterized much of the early English religious drama. Through its historically recursive and expansive approach to the early religious drama, ""Sacred Players"" examines cultural forces that shaped the performance lifetime of these plays, and that promise to deepen our modern understanding of them., Offering a Unique Historical Perspective to the study of medieval English drama, Heather Hill-Vasquez in Sacred Players argues that different treatments of audience and performance in the early drama indicate that the performance life of the drama continued well beyond its traditional placement in medieval history into the Reformation and Renaissance eras. This notion has several significant implications for the study of other religious drama also previously relegated to the English medieval period. Rather than documents preserving a fixed sacred meaning, extant manuscripts present texts wed closely to the inherent fluidity of performance and to the flexibility of differing religious sensibilities. A consistently popular and powerful form of lay worship, the English religious drama in fact defined and reflected the varying nature of religious discourse and dramatic performance well into and beyond the Reformation. Sacred Players also argues that such a second life was driven by a focus on the role of audience response. Specifically, a politicizing of audience reception styles and devotional practices characterized much of the early English religious drama. Through its historically recursive and expansive approach to the early religious drama, Sacred Players examines cultural forces that shaped the performance lifetime of these plays, and that promise to deepen our modern understanding of them., Offering a historical perspective to the study of medieval English drama, this work argues that different treatments of audience and performance in the early drama indicate that the performance life of the drama continued well beyond its traditional placement in medieval history into the Reformation and Renaissance eras.

LC Classification NumberPR643.M5H55 2007