The Circulation of Power in Medieval Biblical Drama: Theaters of Authority

ISBN-13: 9780230115781 / Angielski / Twarda / 2015 / 230 str.

Robert S. Sturges

Opis

Medieval drama based on the Bible commonly directs its audiences toward a Christian interpretation, but equally interesting, and less frequently investigated by scholars, are the plays' modes of resistance to Christian authority. Through a reading informed by the recent temporal turn in queer theory, Robert S. Sturges revitalizes discussions of medieval drama by focusing on how these plays depict the dissemination of power throughout medieval culture. As Sturges shows, power and ultimately resistance were typically enacted through the human body, objects, gender, politics, economics, law, and theater itself, as well as religion. Through these nuanced readings, medieval Biblical drama emerges as more relevant to modern, secular, and multicultural audiences.

Recenzje

"In The Circulation of Power in Medieval Biblical Drama, Robert S. Sturges overturns longstanding assumptions about the interpretive docility of medieval drama, proving its queer (and queering) potential in a series of stunningly original readings. Plays I thought I knew, from Quem quaeritis to the Wakefield Master's Second Shepherds', have never looked fresher." - Tison Pugh, Professor of English, University of Central Florida, USA, and author of Sexuality and Its Queer Discontents in Middle English Literature and Chaucer's (Anti-) Eroticisms and the Queer Middle Ages

"A must-read for anyone interested in gender, religion, or theater. This book makes a compelling case for the subversive potential of medieval biblical plays. In wide-angled and theoretically-nuanced readings, it shows how power is created and sustained in early religious theater, but - more importantly - also critiqued. Among the book's highlights is its insistence on the continued relevance of medieval plays and on the value of past culture in helping us rethink power relations in the present." - Clair Sponsler, Professor of English, University of Iowa, USA and author of The Queen's Dumbshows: John Lydgate and the Making of Early Theater

O autorze

Robert S. Sturges is Professor of English at Arizona State University, USA.