Moral Play and Counterpublic

Description

This study overturns the misconception that the popular English "morality play" was nothing more than a medieval vehicle for conservative religious doctrine. On the contrary, Murakami argues that it was also a fiercely interrogative genre, one that, from its inception in itinerate troupe productions of the late fifteenth century, served not as a cloistered form, but as a volatile public forum. "Moral play" came into its own in the sixteenth century, as a method for challenging normative views on ethics, economics, social rank, and political obligation. Through analyses of representative plays from 1465 to 1599, Murakami contends that what is ultimately at stake in the much discussed connection between symbolic and material practices of theater and market is a phenomenon perceived as more threatening to "the peace" than either theater or the notorious market: a political self-consciousness that gave rise to ephemeral counterpublics who defined themselves against institutional forms of authority. Challenging standard models of periodization, Murakami recovers a mainline tradition that enabled non-elites to recognize themselves as political actors around issues of morality and judgment--the formal underpinnings of moral play.

Contents

Introduction: "Public, Scurrilous, and Profane": Transformations in Moral Drama 1. Mankind: Publicizing the New Guise 2. William Wager: Monstrous Ambition, and the Public Weal 3. History as Allegory: Chronicle Plays and the Bid for Public Office 4. Rhetorical Revolt: Marlowe's Theatre of the Public Enemy 5. Public Judgment and the Virtue of Vice in Jonson's Sin City 6. Conclusion

Author Bio

Ineke Murakami is Assistant Professor of English at SUNY, Albany.

Related Subjects

1. Early Modern/Renaissance Literature
2. Early Modern History 1500-1750
3. Medieval Literature