The focus of this study is upon the Corpus Christi plays, supplemented by other performance practices such as festive and social entertainments, civic parades, funeral processions and public punishments. The main argument relates to the traditional approaches to women's non-performance in the Corpus Christi dramas, but other factors are considered and analysed, including the semiotics of the cross-dressed actor and the significance of the visual and spatial language of the processional stage to gender debates. In conclusion, there is a series of readings which reassess the dramatic portrayal of a selection of holy and vulgar women - the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene, Mrs Noah and Dame Procula. The emphasis throughout the book is upon a performance-based analysis. Evidence from Records of Early English Drama, social, literary and cultural sources are drawn together in order to investigate how performances within the late Middle Ages were both shaped by, and shaped, the public image of women.
KATIE NORMINGTON is Lecturer in Drama, Royal Holloway, London.
- ISBN10 6612080019
- ISBN13 9786612080012
- Publish Date 1 May 2006 (first published 1 January 2006)
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 20 April 2011
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Boydell & Brewer Ltd.
- Format eBook
- Pages 168
- Language English