Staging Knowledge in Early English Drama
Sponsoring Organization(s)
Special Session
Organizer Name
Helen Cushman; Joe Stadolnik
Organizer Affiliation
Harvard Univ.; Univ. College London
Presider Name
Christina M. Fitzgerald
Presider Affiliation
Univ. of Toledo
Paper Title 1
Preeve Demonstratif
Presenter 1 Name
Helen Cushman
Paper Title 2
Carnal Knowledge in the N-Town Nativity
Presenter 2 Name
Emma Maggie Solberg
Presenter 2 Affiliation
Bowdoin College
Paper Title 3
"Full wofull is the householde / That wantys a woman": Staging the Secret and Generative Knowledge of Women in the Wakefield Master’s Plays
Presenter 3 Name
Erin K. Wagner
Presenter 3 Affiliation
SUNY-Delhi
Paper Title 4
Quackery, Continental Drama, and Croxton Play of the Sacrament
Presenter 4 Name
Joe Stadolnik
Start Date
13-5-2018 8:30 AM
Session Location
Bernhard 205
Description
"Staging Knowledge and Early English Drama"
Organizers: Helen Cushman and Joe Stadolnik
In late-medieval England, public performances of learning and expertise were political performances, that not only expressed one’s mastery of a subject but also an ability and right to speak to it in public view. Whether speaking to knowledge of theology, or medicine, or carpentry, these public professions of knowledge were subject to scrutiny both institutional (e.g. the Church or craft guilds) and informal (by lay churchgoers or prospective customers). Drama offered a form in which claims to knowledge could be exaggerated, parodied, or reproduced for effect--in a word, staged--to invite medieval audiences to rethink the social and political dimensions to such performances. Scholars of medieval drama have greatly enriched our sense of the form’s implication in its historical moment; others have brought to bear the insights of performance studies to understand theater’s symbolic function in medieval culture. This panel’s critical focus on knowledge in performance proposes to bridge these strands of scholarship, in questioning how medieval drama might have reframed the politics of such performances.
This panel will invite papers that explore how early English theater and dramatic texts represented knowledge in performance. Possible questions to explore include: How are social and political restrictions on performances of knowledge suspended or altered in early drama? How do dramatic performances of knowledge and expertise challenge or reinforce traditional divisions between modes of knowledge and areas of expertise, e.g. natural science and poetics? What effect does the fictional representation of knowledge have on an audience’s attitude towards real-life experts and the nature of knowledge?
Papers to be Presented:
"Preeve Demonstratif," Helen Cushman, Harvard University
"Carnal Knowledge in the N-Town Nativity," Emma Maggie Solberg, Bowdoin College
"'Full wofull is the householde / That wantys a woman': Staging the Secret and Generative Knowledge of Women in the Wakefield Master’s Plays," Erin K. Wagner, SUNY-Delhi
"Quackery, Continental Drama, and the Croxton Play of the Sacrament," Joe Stadolnik, University College London
Presider: Christina Fitzgerald, University of Toledo
Joe Stadolnik
Staging Knowledge in Early English Drama
Bernhard 205
"Staging Knowledge and Early English Drama"
Organizers: Helen Cushman and Joe Stadolnik
In late-medieval England, public performances of learning and expertise were political performances, that not only expressed one’s mastery of a subject but also an ability and right to speak to it in public view. Whether speaking to knowledge of theology, or medicine, or carpentry, these public professions of knowledge were subject to scrutiny both institutional (e.g. the Church or craft guilds) and informal (by lay churchgoers or prospective customers). Drama offered a form in which claims to knowledge could be exaggerated, parodied, or reproduced for effect--in a word, staged--to invite medieval audiences to rethink the social and political dimensions to such performances. Scholars of medieval drama have greatly enriched our sense of the form’s implication in its historical moment; others have brought to bear the insights of performance studies to understand theater’s symbolic function in medieval culture. This panel’s critical focus on knowledge in performance proposes to bridge these strands of scholarship, in questioning how medieval drama might have reframed the politics of such performances.
This panel will invite papers that explore how early English theater and dramatic texts represented knowledge in performance. Possible questions to explore include: How are social and political restrictions on performances of knowledge suspended or altered in early drama? How do dramatic performances of knowledge and expertise challenge or reinforce traditional divisions between modes of knowledge and areas of expertise, e.g. natural science and poetics? What effect does the fictional representation of knowledge have on an audience’s attitude towards real-life experts and the nature of knowledge?
Papers to be Presented:
"Preeve Demonstratif," Helen Cushman, Harvard University
"Carnal Knowledge in the N-Town Nativity," Emma Maggie Solberg, Bowdoin College
"'Full wofull is the householde / That wantys a woman': Staging the Secret and Generative Knowledge of Women in the Wakefield Master’s Plays," Erin K. Wagner, SUNY-Delhi
"Quackery, Continental Drama, and the Croxton Play of the Sacrament," Joe Stadolnik, University College London
Presider: Christina Fitzgerald, University of Toledo
Joe Stadolnik