A Cultural History of Tragedy in the Middle Ages

Description

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