Gender and Medieval Drama (Gender in the Middle Ages, 1) (Volume 1)

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. CONTENTS......Page 6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS......Page 8 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS......Page 10 INTRODUCTION......Page 12 Production and Reception of Meaning......Page 16 Opposition of Fiction and Reality......Page 21 Methodology......Page 24 Gender and Drama......Page 28 1. Women and History......Page 32 Women and the Home......Page 33 Women in Public......Page 37 Women and Trade......Page 39 Women’s Exclusion......Page 42 Part I: Performing Gender......Page 44 2. Gender and Performance......Page 46 Records of Female Performance......Page 50 Women as Audience Members......Page 55 Women’s Performance......Page 59 Women and the Mystery Plays......Page 63 3. Cross-Dressing and Performance......Page 66 Cultural Cross-Dressing in the Middle Ages......Page 68 Transvestism on the Renaissance Stage......Page 70 Cross-Dressing in the Corpus Christi Cycles......Page 74 4. Signifying Women......Page 82 The City,Women and the Body......Page 84 The Disruptive Body......Page 92 Part II: Representing Gender......Page 100 5. Holy Women......Page 102 The Virgin in Drama......Page 106 Mary Magdalene......Page 112 Magdalene in the Corpus Christi Cycles......Page 118 6. Vulgar Women......Page 130 Mrs Noah......Page 132 The Emergent Individual/Redundant Worker......Page 136 Procula: A Silenced Wife Speaks......Page 143 Women and Subversion......Page 151 BIBLIOGRAPHY......Page 153 INDEX......Page 166 An investigation of the public image of women as presented in contemporary drama. 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 relatesto 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. An investigation of the public image of women as presented in contemporary drama. 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 "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."--Jacket