cover next page > title: The Performance of Middle English Culture : Essays On Chaucer and the Drama in Honor of Martin Stevens author: Paxson, James J.; Clopper, Lawrence M.; Tomasch, Sylvia.; Stevens, Martin. publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd. isbn10 | asin: 0859915271 print isbn13: 9780859915274 ebook isbn13: 9780585218656 language: English subject English literature--Middle English, 1100-1500--History and criticism, Chaucer, Geoffrey,--d. 1400--Criticism and interpretation, Chaucer, Geoffrey,--d. 1400--Knowledge-- Performing arts, English drama--To 1500--History and criticism, Drama, Medieval--Histo publication date: 1998 lcc: PR251.P47 1998eb ddc: 820.9/001 subject: English literature--Middle English, 1100-1500--History and criticism, Chaucer, Geoffrey,--d. 1400--Criticism and interpretation, Chaucer, Geoffrey,--d. 1400--Knowledge-- Performing arts, English drama--To 1500--History and criticism, Drama, Medieval--Histo cover next page > < previous page page_i next page > Page i The Performance Of Middle English Culture Theatricality as a cultural process is vitally important in the middle ages; it encompasses not only the thematic importation of dramatic images into the Canterbury Tales, but also the social and ideological 'performativities' of the mystery and morality plays, metadramatic investments, and the ludic energies of Chaucerian discourses in general. The twelve essays collected here address for the first time this intersection, using contemporary theory and historical scholarship to treat a number of important critical problems, including the anthropology of theatrical performance; gender; allegory; Chaucerian metapoetics; intertextual play and jouissance; social mediation and rhetoric; genre; and the institutionality of medieval studies. The volume is a tribute to the distinguished medievalist MARTIN STEVENS, whose own work on Chaucer and the medieval drama is honoured here. JAMES J. PAXSON is Associate Professor of English at the University of Florida; LAWRENCE M. CLOPPER is Professor of English at Indiana University; SYLVIA TOMASCH is Associate Professor of English at Hunter College, City University of New York. < previous page page_i next page > < previous page page_ii next page > < previous page page_iii next page > Page iii The Performance Of Middle English Culture Essays on Chaucer and the Drama in Honor of Martin Stevens Edited by James J. Paxson Lawrence M. Clopper Sylvia Thomasch D.S. BREWER < previous page page_iii next page > < previous page page_iv next page > Page iv (c)Editors and Contributors 1998 All Rights Reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation no part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system, published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast, transmitted, recorded or reproduced in any form or by any means, without the prior permission of the copyright owner First published 1998 D. S. Brewer, Cambridge ISBN 0 85991 527 1 D. S. Brewer is an imprint of Boydell &Brewer Ltd PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK and of Boydell & Brewer Inc. PO Box 41026, Rochester, NY 14604-4126, USA A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The performance of Middle English culture : essays on Chaucer and the drama in honor of Martin Stevens / edited by James J. Paxson, Lawrence M. Clopper, Sylvia Tomasch. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-85991-527-1 (acid-free paper) 1. English literature- Middle English, 1100- 1500- History and criticism. 2. Chaucer, Geoffrey, d. 1400- Criticism and interpretation. 3. Chaucer, Geoffrey, d. 1400- Knowledge- Performing arts. 4. English dram- To 1500- History and criticism. 5. Drama, Medieval - History and criticism. 6. Performing arts - England - History. 7. England - Civilization - 1066-1485. 8. Performing arts in literature. I. Paxson, James J. II. Clopper, Lawrence M., 1941. III. Tomasch, Sylvia. IV. Stevens, Martin. PR251.P47 1998 820.9'001 - dc21 98-24827 This publication is printed on acid-free paper Printed in Great Britain byScr:St Edmundsbury Press Ltd, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk < previous page page_iv next page > < previous page page_v next page > Page v Contents List of Contributors vi Foreword ix Introduction James J.Paxson 1 Sponsorship, Reflexivity and Resistance: Cultural Readings of the York Cycle Plays Kathleen Ashley 9 Eliding the "Medieval": Renaissance "New Historicism" and Sixteenth-Century Drama Richard K. Emmerson 25 "Se in what stat thou doyst indwell": The Shifting Constructions of Gender and Power Relations in Wisdom Marlene Clark, Sharon Kraus, Pamela Sheingorn 43 The Chaucerian Critique of Medieval Theatricality Seth Lerer 59 The Experience of Modernity in Late Medieval Literature: Urbanism, Experience and Rhetoric in Some Early Descriptions of London John M. Ganim 77 Noah's Wife's Flood Alfred David 97 Textual Pleasure in the Miller's Tale Richard Daniels 111 Petrarch, Chaucer and the Making of the Clerk Warren Ginsberg 125 The Crisis of Mediation in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde Robert W. Hanning 143 Reading Chaucer Ab Ovo: Mock-Exemplum in the Nun's Priest's Tale Peter W. Travis 161 A Postmodern Performance: Counter-Reading Chaucer 's Clerk's Tale and Maxine Hong Kingston's "No Name Woman" William McClellan 183 Tabula Gratulatoria 197 < previous page page_v next page > < previous page page_vi next page > Page vi Contributors About the Contributors Kathleen Ashley is Professor of English at the University of Southern Maine. She has edited a collection of essays Victor Turner and the Construction of Cultural Criticism: Between Literature and Anthropology (University of Indiana Press, 1990), co-edited with Pamela Sheingorn Interpreting Cultural Symbols: St Anne in Late Medieval Society (University of Georgia Press, 1990), and is completing books on Moving Subjects: The Semiotics of Processional Performance and Writing Faith (co-authored with Pamela Sheingorn) Richard K. Emmerson is Professor and Chair of English at Western Washington University. Interested in the intersection of medieval literature, art, and religion with modern theory, he has published on drama, illuminated manuscripts, and visionary poetry. His books include Antichrist in the Middle Ages (University of Washington Press, 1981); Approaches to Teaching Medieval Drama (MLA, 1990); The Apocalyptic Imagination in Medieval Literature (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992), with Ronald Herzman; and The Apocalypse in the Middle Ages (Cornell University Press, 1993), with Bernard McGinn. With David Hult he has recently published a translation and commentary on the Old French play, Jour Du Jugement for the Early European Drama in Translation Series. He is currently working on a book-length project, Medieval Literacies: Image, Language, and Ideology in Late Medieval Manuscripts Marlene Clark teaches English at Lehman College (CUNY). She is currently at work on a project historicizing the life-cycle of mature medieval and Renaissance women represented in drama. Sharon Karus studied medieval drama at the City University of New York Graduate Center and is now doing research on theories of gender, the Middle English morality plays, and critical feminism in contemporary theory. Her book of poems, Generation, was published by Alice James Books in 1997. Pamela Sheingorn, a Professor of History at Baruch College and the Graduate Center (CUNY), has written numerous articles on the relationship of medieval art and drama. She is the author of The Easter Sepulchre in England (1987) and co-editor with Kathleen Ashley of Interpreting Cultural Symbols: Saint Anne in Late Medieval Society(1990). She has edited and < previous page page_vi next page > < previous page page_vii next page > Page vii translated The Book of Sainte Foy's Miracles (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995), and is currently co-authoring with Kathleen Ashley an interpretive study of the cult of Sainte Foy. She is co-organizer of the Medieval Feminist Art History Project and is engaged in a study of the constructions of gender and the body in medieval visual culture. Seth Lerer is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Stanford, where he is currently Chairman of the Department of Comparative Literature. His most recent publications include Chaucer and His Readers (Princeton University Press, 1993; paperback, 1996), and Courtly Letters in the Age of Henry VIII (Cambridge University Press, 1997). John M. Ganim has authored Style and Consciousness in Middle English Narrative (Princeton University Press, 1983) and Chaucerian Theatricality (Princeton University Press, 1990). He is Professor of English, University of California at Riverside, where he is also the coordinator of the Focussed Research Project on Architecture, Urbanism, and Theory. Alfred David is Professor of English Emeritus at Indiana University. He is the author of The Strumpet Muse: Art and Morals in Chaucer's Poetry (Indiana University Press, 1976), co-editor of The Minor Poems for the Chaucer Variorum (University of Oklahoma Press, 1982), editor of The Romaunt of the Rose for the Riverside Chaucer, and editor of the Middle Ages in The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Richard Daniels, Associate Professor of English at Oregon State University, has published poetry and fiction as well as articles on Chaucer, Medieval drama, and literary and critical theory. Warren Ginsberg is Professor of English at SUNY Albany. He is author of TThe Cast of Character: the Representation of Personality in Ancient and Medieval Literature (University of Toronto Press, 1983) and editor of Ideas of Order in the Middle Ages (SUNY Press, 1990). He has also edited Wynnere and Wastoure and the Parlement of the Thre Ages (Middle English Text Series, 1992). Forthcoming is a book titled Dante's Aesthetics of Being from University of Michigan Press. Robert W. Hanning, Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, has authored The Vision of History in Early Britain (Columbia University Press, 1966), The Individual in Twelfth-Century Romance (Yale University Press, 1977), and co-edited the Ideal and the Real in Renaissance Culture (Yale University Press, 1983). He has translated and co- edited, with Joan Ferrante, The Lais of Marie de France (Dutton, 1978). He is now completing a book on the subject of social game, rhetoric, and mediation in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Peter W. Travis is Professor of English at Dartmouth College. He has published articles on the medieval drama, Chaucer, and medieval literary theory and is author of Dramatic Design in the Chester Cycle (University of < previous page page_vii next page > < previous page page_viii next page > Page viii Chicago Press, 1982). He is at present working on a book about Chaucer's Nun's Priest's Tale. William McClellan is Associate Professor of English at Baruch College (CUNY). He has published articles on medieval rhetoric, textual criticism, and cultural theory. He is completing a book entitled The Griselda Complex: Chaucer's "Clerk's Tale" and the Dialogics of Power, Knowledge, and the Subjugation of Women in Late Medieval English Culture. About the Editors James J. Paxson is Associate Professor of English at the University of Florida. He is the author of The Poetics of Personification (Cambridge University Press, 1994) and is working on a book about master tropes in critical theory and the social construction of the critical institution. He has co-edited Desiring Discourse: The Literature of Love, Ovid Through Chaucer with Cynthia Gravlee (Susquehanna University Press, 1998), and is Associate Editor of Exemplaria: A Journal of Theory in Medieval and Renaissance Studies. Lawrence M. Clopper , Professor of English and Director of the Medieval Studies Institute at Indiana University, is the editor of the dramatic documents of Chester for the Records of Early English Drama and author of "Songes of Rechelesness" :Langland and the Franciscans (University of Michigan Press, 1997). Currently, he is the President of the Medieval and Renaissance Drama Society and recently received a Guggenheim Fellowship for work on a book on medieval drama. Sylvia Tomasch is Associate Professor of English at Hunter College (CUNY). She has published articles on Dante, Chaucer,mappae mundi, and the alliterative revival. She has co-edited a collection from the University of Pennsylvania Press entitled Text and Territory: Geographical Imagination in the European Middle Ages, and is completing a book on medieval geography, cartography, and literature. < previous page page_viii next page > < previous page page_ix next page > Page ix Foreword This volume came together as part of an effort to celebrate the retirement in 1994 of Martin Stevens, who served the City University of New York as Distinguished Professor of English as well as Dean of Baruch College. He also held positions at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, Ohio State University, and the University of Louisville, where he taught many, many students in courses ranging from the medieval through the modern. He has published books, dozens of articles, and edited editions of medieval poets and play cycles that now serve as standards in the field of medieval studies. To honor so long and varied a career, three of his former students- Lawrence Clopper, Jim Paxson, and Sylvia Tomasch - planned to accordingly speak to the stages in his carreer, a career shaped by a wealth of interests and marked by fine achievements, by assembling a collection of thematically and methodologically interconnected essays. Martin Stevens has contributed to studies in linguistics. Old English, medieval Latin, Chaucer, the Middle English drama, Shakespeare, and critical theory; he has also written on pedagogy, the teaching of college writing, and medieval iconography. Capturing so broad and profound a contribution in an honorary, representative volume has no doubt been difficult, perhaps impossible. Yet the essays collected in The Performance of Middle English Culturewould not have been possible without both the intellectual and the personal impetus of Martin Stevens. Many of the contributors to this volume call Martin a personal friend; all acknowledge the special influence his intellectual work has had on their own scholarly productions and humanistic thinking. After bouts of severe illness, and after a permanent move from New York to San Francisco, Martin continues to be a productive writer and thinker-working on projects ranging from the theory of manuscript editing in a postmodern era to personal memoirs that will take in stride escape from the Holocaust, a brief and tumultuous life in Israel, emigration to the United States, and the long ascent in academic life. With his wife Rose Zimbardo-whom we also praise as a co-survivor, a paramount scholar of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, a friend, an excellent and loving human being-he has achieved the lof and dom, in our minds and hearts, of only the rare and elect. < previous page page_ix next page >