Visualizing Medieval Performance: Perspectives, Histories, Contexts - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0754664368 ISBN 13: 9780754664369

Publisher: Routledge, 2008

Synopsis

Taking a fresh look at the interconnections between medieval images, texts, theater, and practices of viewing, reading and listening, this explicitly interdisciplinary volume explores various manifestations of performance and meanings of performativity in the Middle Ages. The contributors - from their various perspectives as scholars of art history, religion, history, literary studies, theater studies, music and dance - combine their resources to reassess the complexity of expressions and definitions of medieval performance in a variety of different media. Among the topics considered are interconnections between ritual and theater; dynamics of performative readings of illuminated manuscripts, buildings and sculptures; linguistic performances of identity; performative models of medieval spirituality; social and political spectacles encoded in ceremonies; junctures between spatial configurations of the medieval stage and mnemonic practices used for meditation; performances of late medieval music that raise questions about the issues of historicity, authenticity, and historical correctness in performance; and tensions inherent in the very notion of a medieval dance performance.

About this title

About the Author

Elina Gertsman is Assistant Professor of Art History at Case Western Reserve University, USA. She has written on macabre imagery, and on the relationship between medieval art and drama.

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0754664368
• ISBN 13: 9780754664369
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 366
• Editor: Gertsman Elina