medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
I would like to announce that Ashgate just released the book I edited, which might be of interest to some of you.
Visualizing Medieval Performance: Perspectives, Histories, Contexts
Taking a fresh look at the interconnections between medieval
images, texts, theater, and practices of viewing, reading and
listening, this explicitly interdisciplinary volume explores various
manifestations of performance and meanings of performativity in the
Middle Ages. The contributors – from their various perspectives as
scholars of art history, religion, history, literary studies, theater
studies, music and dance – combine their resources to reassess the
complexity of expressions and definitions of medieval performance in a
variety of different media. Among the topics considered are
interconnections between ritual and theater; dynamics of performative
readings of illuminated manuscripts, buildings and sculptures;
linguistic performances of identity; performative models of medieval
spirituality; social and political spectacles encoded in ceremonies;
junctures between spatial configurations of the medieval stage and
mnemonic practices used for meditation; performances of late medieval
music that raise questions about the issues of historicity,
authenticity, and historical correctness in performance; and tensions
inherent in the very notion of a medieval dance performance.
Contents: Introduction: Elina Gertsman
Part I,
Visual Performance: Word, Image, Body: essays by Christina Maranci, Richard K.
Emmerson, Pamela Sheingorn, and Elina GertsmanPart II,
Devotional Performance: Preaching, Prayer, Vision: essays by Beverly Mayne Kienzle, Carolyn
Muessig, Mary Suydam, and Mary Frohlich
Part III,
Social Performance: Identity, Language, Authority: Tessays by Jonathan Decter, Daisy Delogu, Helen Swift, and Rebecca Zorach
Part IV, Lived Performance:
Theater, Dance, Music: essays by Erika Fischer-Lichte, Glenn Ehrstine, Yossi Maurey, and Jennifer NevileBibliography
Reviews:
'In this volume, Elina Gertsman
brings together a diverse yet coherent set of essays that engage
important historical, perceptual, and methodological questions. Modern
generic categories are subordinated to interdisciplinary investigation,
so that specific manifestations of performance in its more obvious
forms (song, ritual, drama, dance) emerge as participants in a much
larger culture shaped by visual vocabularies, language, embodiment, and
space. Individual contributors both use and critique prevailing
scholarship in valuable ways, and the collection as a whole models the
responsible application of postmodern critical theory to the
understanding of medieval artifacts. This is a significant contribution
to an emerging field of enquiry, and could even stand as an
introduction to it.'
Carol Symes, Department of History, University of Illinois at
Urbana–Champaign, author of A Common Stage: Theater and Public Life In
Medieval Arras
'Visualizing Medieval Performance reads as an extended conversation
on the nature of medieval performance among medievalists from a variety
of disciplines. The sixteen essays presented here provide insight into
the performative practices that informed the production and reception
of medieval texts of all kinds: be they spoken, visual, or enacted.
Each contribution moves us further away from the text-based scholarship
on which studies of medieval theater primarily have focused to stress
the visual nature of medieval texts and the diverse ways they engaged
their audiences. As we follow this conversation through a wide range of
media, historical examples, and theoretical models, we arrive at an
expanded definition of medieval performativity, as well as the
conviction that medieval culture was fundamentally and distinctly
"performance oriented."'
Laura Weigert, Department of Art History, Rutgers University,
author of Weaving Sacred Stories: French Choir Tapestries and the
Performance of Clerical Identity
Please read more at
http://www.ashgatepublishing.com/default.aspx?page=637&calcTitle=1&title_id=10422&edition_id=11158&promotion_id=b982b0b2-9d5d-4f1d-ba44-98b9fcaf8af1
Please forward this announcement to anyone who may be interested.
Cheers,
EG
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