Office: LL 226B, Tel.: 480-965-8139
E-mail: Richard.Newhauser@asu.edu, Web site: http://www.public.asu.edu/~rnewhaus/
Office hours: TTh 1:30 - 3:00 p.m., and by appointment
Description:
The texts of medieval drama demonstrate a vibrant expression of dramatic elements in medieval Christianity. We will focus on a wide spectrum of these elements, in particular in their preservation in documents in England: the theatricality seen in clerical actions during the liturgy; mimetic embellishments of liturgical tropes, especially for Easter; monastic representations of Scriptural narratives; the cycle plays from urban centers in the north of England in the later Middle Ages that dramatize the full extent of salvation history; non-cycle plays staging the lives of saints and other matters of religious-catechetical interest; and morality plays of enacted homiletic content. But the moralities, in particular, also demonstrate political and social concerns that are carried on in the interludes of the sixteenth century. All of these areas - religious, moral, social, and political - will be part of our investigation of historical (and historiographical) developments in the medieval English theater.
Reading List:
On Reserve or Electronic Access
Beckwith, Sarah. Signifying God: Social Relation and
Symbolic Act in the York Corpus Christi Plays. Chicago
and London: University of Chicago Press, 2001. [PR644.Y6B43 2001]
Coletti, Theresa. Mary Magdalene and the Drama of Saints:
Theater, Gender, and Religion in Late Medieval England. Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004. [PR643.M37C65 2004]
Davidson, Clifford. Festivals and Plays in Late Medieval
Britain. Aldershot, UK, and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2007.
[PR641.D37 2007]
Davidson, Clifford. History, Religion, and Violence: Cultural
Contexts for Medieval and Renaissance English Drama. Variorum
Collected studies, CS744. Aldershot, UK, and Burlington, VT: Ashgate,
2002. [PR641.D38 2002]
English Parish Drama. Ed. Alexandra F. Johnston
and Wim Hüsken. Ludus: Medieval and Early Renaissance Theatre
and Drama, 1. Amsterdam and Atlanta, GA: Rodopi, 1996. [PN2587.E54x
1996]
Happé, Peter. The Towneley Cycle: Unity and Diversity.
Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2007. [PR644.T6H37 2007]
Hardison, Jr., O. B. Christian Rite and Christian Drama
in the Middle Ages. Essays in the Origin and Early History of
Modern Drama. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1965. [BX1970.H28]
Hayes, Douglas W. "Backbiter and the Rhetoric of Detraction."
Comparative Drama 34.1 (2000): 53-78. [electronic
access]
Kolve, V. A. "Everyman and the Parable of the
Talents." In Medieval English Drama. Essays Critical
and Contextual. Ed. Jerome Taylor and Alan H. Nelson,
316-40. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1972. [PR641.T3]
King, Pamela M. The York Mystery Cycle and the Worship of
the City. Westfield Medieval Studies, 1752-5659, vol.
1. Woodbridge, UK, and New York: D. S. Brewer, 2006. [PR644.Y6K54
2006]
Nisse, Ruth. Defining Acts: Drama and the Politics of Interpretation
in Late Medieval England. Notre Dame, IN: University of
Notre Dame Press, 2004. [PR643.P64N57 2004]
Norland, Howard B. Drama in Early Tudor Britain, 1485-1558.
Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995. [PR646.N67 1995
(West)]
Purdon, Liam O. The Wakefield Master's Dramatic Art: A Drama
of Spiritual Understanding. Gainesville, FL, etc.: University
Press of Florida, 2003. [PR644.T6P87 2003]
Woolf, Rosemary. The English Mystery Plays. Berkeley
and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1972. [PR643.M8W66]
Requirements:
A 15/20-minute oral report on the topic you have chosen to work on in consultation with me, synopses of secondary works assigned for class, and a final paper. You must meet with me during my office hours (or make an appointment) to discuss your topic.
1. 8/26: Introduction
2. 9/2: Concerning Tragedies (Honorius of Autun), The Service for the Consecration of a Church (Bishop of Metz), The Visit to the Sepulchre (Regularis Concordia); Cambridge Companion, pp. 1-25; Hardison, pp. 220-52 [film]
3. 9/9: The Service for Representing Adam; Cambridge Companion, pp. 326-60; Hardison, pp. 253-62
4. 9/16: Noah (Wakefield); Cambridge Companion, pp. 152-82; Davidson, Festivals, pp. 49-79; King, pp. 7-29
5. 9/23: The Sacrifice of Isaac (Brome); Cambridge Companion, pp. 26-74; Davidson, History, pp. 124-48 [film]
6. 9/30: The Second Shepherds' Play (Wakefield); Happé, pp. 56-83; Purdon, pp. 103-51; Nisse, pp. 75-98 [film]
7. 10/7: Herod the Great (Wakefield); Johnston, "Introduction" and " 'What Revels are in Hand,?' " in English Parish Drama; Purdon, pp. 152-90
8. 10/14: The Passion Play (N-Town); The Crucifixion of Christ (York); Christ's Death and Burial (York); Cambridge Companion, pp. 183-210; Beckwith, pp. 42-55
9. 10/21: The Harrowing of Hell (Wakefield); The Resurrection of the Lord (Wakefield); Cambridge Companion, pp. 99-124; Woolf, pp. 269-99 [film]
10. 10/28: The Digby Mary Magdalene; Cambridge Companion, pp. 263-86; Coletti, pp. 151-89
11. 11/4: The Castle of Perseverance; Cambridge Companion, pp. 235-62
12. 11/11: No class (Veterans Day)
13. 11/18: The Castle of Perseverance; Hayes
14. 11/25: Everyman; Kolve
15. 12/2: John Heywood (?), Johan Johan; Norland, pp. 255-66
Papers are due by noon on Friday, December 4.