The Middle English Mystery Play: A Study in Dramatic Speech and Form (European Studies in English Literature) - Hardcover

Diller, Hans-Jurgen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521320623 ISBN 13: 9780521320627

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1992

Synopsis

The mystery plays of medieval England have traditionally been analysed in ways which centre on the texts and their religious significance. Hans-Jurgen Diller's major study, first published in German, seeks to recover their dramatic potential by focusing on the function of language in conventional modes of speech, prayer, address and dialogue. He looks at speech and dramatic form in the plays to reveal new insights concerning spatial and temporal orientation, the expression of emotions, and the relationships between characters on stage, between actor and audience, and between the dramatic world and the ordinary world outside it. His analysis offers new ways of understanding the relationship of vernacular drama to its liturgical antecedents, and new means of distinguishing stylistically between the cycles and between the groups of plays they comprise.

About this title

Book Description

The mystery plays of medieval England have traditionally been analysed in ways which centre on the texts and their religious significance. This major study seeks to recover their dramatic potential by focusing on the function of speech and dramatic form in the plays.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521320623
• ISBN 13: 9780521320627
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 356