ENGLISH 609.47 - Drama in the English Middle Ages
Instructor: Dr. Jacqueline Jenkins
Wednesday, 10:00 - 12:30
Mail to: jenkinsj [at] ucalgary [dot] ca
This course will consider dramatic literature and questions of performance in the English Middle Ages, drawing on surviving dramatic texts, as well as records of, or references to, dramatic activity. Though a distressingly small number of Middle English play-scripts or otherwise explicitly dramatic works survive, the extant evidence nevertheless tells us that the medieval English theatre cut across, and frequently combined, many genres, including liturgical and biblical narrative, farce or fabliaux, saints' legends and miracle stories, and moral and political allegory. Most (but not all) historians of medieval English performance understand the idea of 'dramatic literature' relatively broadly, working from the broadness of the medieval Latin term 'ludus' ('game' or 'play'), which survives as the most common contemporary reference to medieval performance. In this course, we will follow that lead, and read both explicitly dramatic Middle English works and texts that challenge the categories of 'dramatic' and 'non-dramatic'. For instance, while we will certainly read and discuss the 'Corpus Christi' plays (primarily but not exclusively from the York cycle), the 'morality' plays (including Everyman, Wisdom, Mankind), and various examples from other religious plays and late medieval Interludes, we will also read and discuss (in the context of performance and performativity) other Middle English texts that require we expand or reject modern generic distinctions, for instance, Dame Sirith (an early fabliau) the mummings associated with John Lydgate, and examples of verse saints' legends. Through the supplementary readings from both medieval records (accessible through the work of REED primarily) and contemporary critical work, we will be attentive to the ways questions of audience, venue and occasion complicate and enrich our understanding of medieval performance and performance texts; we will also pay particular attention to the concerns medieval intellectuals had around the issues of religious performance and civic drama.
Course requirements will include presentations on class readings, the preparation of seminar papers, and a final research essay. All medieval texts will be in Middle English, but the proposed anthology is designed for broad student use, so even students with very little Middle English should find the readings accessible.
Proposed Text List:
Walker, Greg, ed. Medieval Drama: An Anthology. Blackwell, 2000.
The actual texts and editions will be announced before the class begins. Many of the readings will be provided in a photocopy package.
