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

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May 13th, 8:30 AM

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