A Cultural History of Tragedy in the Middle Ages 2

For the first time, a group of distinguished authors come together to provide an authoritative exploration of the cultural history of tragedy in the Middle Ages. Reports of the so-called death of medieval tragedy, they argue, have been greatly exaggerated; and, for the Middle Ages, the stakes couldn’t be higher. Eight essays offer a blueprint for future study as they take up the extensive but much-neglected medieval engagement with tragic genres, modes, and performances from the vantage points of gender, politics, theology, history, social theory, anthropology, philosophy, economics, and media studies. The result? A recuperated medieval tragedy that is as much a branch of literature as it is of theology, politics, law, or ethics and which, at long last, rejoins the millennium-long conversation about one of the world’s most enduring art forms. Each chapter takes a different theme as its focus: forms and media; sites of performance and circulation; communities of production and consumption; philosophy and social theory; religion, ritual and myth; politics of city and nation; society and family, and gender and sexuality. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS vi NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS vii SERIES PREFACE ix GENERAL EDITOR’S ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xi Introduction: Miscarriages of Justice / Jody Enders 1 1. Forms and Media / Carol Symes 15 2. Sites of Performance and Circulation / Christopher Swift 27 3. Communities of Production and Consumption / John T. Sebastian 49 4. Philosophy and Social Theory / Antonio Donato and Erith Jaffe-Berg 65 5. Religion, Ritual and Myth / John Parker 81 6. Politics of City and Nation / Hannah Skoda 99 7. Society and Family / Theresa Coletti 113 8. Gender and Sexuality / Karen Sullivan 127 NOTES 141 BIBLIOGRAPHY 181 INDEX 213 How have ideas of the tragic influenced Western culture? How has tragedy been shaped by its social and cultural conditions? In a work that spans 2,500 years, these ambitious questions are addressed by 55 experts, each contributing their overview of a theme applied to a period in history. Extending far beyond the established aesthetic tradition, the volumes describe the forms tragedy takes to represent human conflict and suffering, and how it engages with matters of philosophy, society, politics, religion and gender. Volume 2 covers the period 1000-1400