Cultures of Witnessing : Law and the York Plays
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| Title: | Cultures of Witnessing : Law and the York Plays |
|---|---|
| Description: | Like other compilations of medieval urban drama, the plays that were performed in the streets of York on the Feast of Corpus Christi from the late fourteenth century until the third quarter of the sixteenth have most frequently been discussed in the context of the devotional cultures and practices of the later Middle Ages. The pageants'preoccupation with law, and with witnessing in particular, has received much less attention, Emma Lipton observes, yet the cycle of forty-seven plays, which together tell the story of human history from the Creation through the Last Judgment, contains an extended sequence that stages the trials of Christ leading up to the Crucifixion, and legal discourse features prominently elsewhere as well. While the play collections associated with other cities also engage with legal concepts, the York Plays devote an unusual amount of attention to the law, Lipton contends. It is no coincidence that the plays themselves are preserved alongside a wide range of legal records in the York Memorandum Books, repositories of civic documents that were kept in the city's guildhall.Engaging both theater and legal studies, Lipton is concerned in particular with the interfaces in the York Plays between dramatic practice and legal concepts of witnessing. In medieval English courts, witnesses were defined as neighbors; they spoke both to what they had seen and heard and also to common knowledge of events. At the same time, many legal theorists were concerned by how the temporal gap between initial experience and testimony might reshape the record of the past in light of the motives and emotions of individual witnesses and allied groups. With chapters focusing on space, speech, affect, and temporality, Cultures of Witnessing considers how civic performance and the legal theory and practice of witnessing promoted a shared sense of urban citizenship, and how this in turn provides a way to theorize late medieval religious drama, whose players performed on the streets and neighborhoods in which they conducted their daily lives. |
| Authors: | Emma Lipton |
| Resource Type: | eBook. |
| Subjects: | Witnesses in literature, Law in literature, Witnesses--England--History--To 1500, Mysteries and miracle-plays, English--England--York, Theater--England--York--History--Medieval, 500-1500, City and town life--England--York--History--To 1500, Law--England--History--To 1500, Law and literature--England--History--To 1500, English drama--To 1500--History and criticism |
| Categories: | DRAMA / Medieval, LITERARY CRITICISM / Drama |
| Database: | eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) |
| FullText | Links: – Type: ebook-pdf – Type: ebook-epub Text: Availability: 0 |
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| Header | DbId: nlebk DbLabel: eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) An: 3115029 RelevancyScore: 1110 AccessLevel: 6 PubType: eBook PubTypeId: ebook PreciseRelevancyScore: 1109.74133300781 |
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| Items | – Name: Title Label: Title Group: Ti Data: Cultures of Witnessing : Law and the York Plays – Name: Abstract Label: Description Group: Ab Data: Like other compilations of medieval urban drama, the plays that were performed in the streets of York on the Feast of Corpus Christi from the late fourteenth century until the third quarter of the sixteenth have most frequently been discussed in the context of the devotional cultures and practices of the later Middle Ages. The pageants'preoccupation with law, and with witnessing in particular, has received much less attention, Emma Lipton observes, yet the cycle of forty-seven plays, which together tell the story of human history from the Creation through the Last Judgment, contains an extended sequence that stages the trials of Christ leading up to the Crucifixion, and legal discourse features prominently elsewhere as well. While the play collections associated with other cities also engage with legal concepts, the York Plays devote an unusual amount of attention to the law, Lipton contends. It is no coincidence that the plays themselves are preserved alongside a wide range of legal records in the York Memorandum Books, repositories of civic documents that were kept in the city's guildhall.Engaging both theater and legal studies, Lipton is concerned in particular with the interfaces in the York Plays between dramatic practice and legal concepts of witnessing. In medieval English courts, witnesses were defined as neighbors; they spoke both to what they had seen and heard and also to common knowledge of events. At the same time, many legal theorists were concerned by how the temporal gap between initial experience and testimony might reshape the record of the past in light of the motives and emotions of individual witnesses and allied groups. With chapters focusing on space, speech, affect, and temporality, Cultures of Witnessing considers how civic performance and the legal theory and practice of witnessing promoted a shared sense of urban citizenship, and how this in turn provides a way to theorize late medieval religious drama, whose players performed on the streets and neighborhoods in which they conducted their daily lives. – Name: Author Label: Authors Group: Au Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Emma+Lipton%22">Emma Lipton</searchLink> – Name: TypePub Label: Resource Type Group: TypPub Data: eBook. – Name: Subject Label: Subjects Group: Su Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Witnesses+in+literature%22">Witnesses in literature</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Law+in+literature%22">Law in literature</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Witnesses--England--History--To+1500%22">Witnesses--England--History--To 1500</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Mysteries+and+miracle-plays%2C+English--England--York%22">Mysteries and miracle-plays, English--England--York</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Theater--England--York--History--Medieval%2C+500-1500%22">Theater--England--York--History--Medieval, 500-1500</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22City+and+town+life--England--York--History--To+1500%22">City and town life--England--York--History--To 1500</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Law--England--History--To+1500%22">Law--England--History--To 1500</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Law+and+literature--England--History--To+1500%22">Law and literature--England--History--To 1500</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22English+drama--To+1500--History+and+criticism%22">English drama--To 1500--History and criticism</searchLink> – Name: SubjectBISAC Label: Categories Group: Su Data: <searchLink fieldCode="ZK" term="%22DRAMA+%2F+Medieval%22">DRAMA / Medieval</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="ZK" term="%22LITERARY+CRITICISM+%2F+Drama%22">LITERARY CRITICISM / Drama</searchLink> |
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| RecordInfo | BibRecord: BibEntity: Classifications: – Code: 822.051609 Scheme: ddc Type: prePub Languages: – Code: eng Text: English Subjects: – SubjectFull: Witnesses in literature Type: general – SubjectFull: Law in literature Type: general – SubjectFull: Witnesses--England--History--To 1500 Type: general – SubjectFull: Mysteries and miracle-plays, English--England--York Type: general – SubjectFull: Theater--England--York--History--Medieval, 500-1500 Type: general – SubjectFull: City and town life--England--York--History--To 1500 Type: general – SubjectFull: Law--England--History--To 1500 Type: general – SubjectFull: Law and literature--England--History--To 1500 Type: general – SubjectFull: English drama--To 1500--History and criticism Type: general Titles: – TitleFull: Cultures of Witnessing : Law and the York Plays Type: main BibRelationships: HasContributorRelationships: – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Emma Lipton – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Emma Lipton IsPartOfRelationships: – BibEntity: Dates: – D: 01 M: 01 Type: published Y: 2022 – D: 15 M: 04 Type: profile Y: 2022 Identifiers: – Type: isbn-print Value: 9780812253856 – Type: isbn-electronic Value: 9780812298468 Titles: – TitleFull: Cultures of Witnessing : Law and the York Plays Type: main |
| ResultId | 1 |
