|
|
Article: Watching the watchers: drama spectatorship and counter-surveillance in sixteenth-century chester.(Critical Essay)
- Article from:
- Studia Anglica Posnaniensia: international review of English Studies
- Article date:
- August 6, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Adam Mickiewicz University. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
ABSTRACT
The late medieval cycle of 24 plays at Chester was begun in earnest during the fifteenth century and transformed in the sixteenth, forming a long and coherent theatrical tradition. Recent scholarship and criticism have documented the civic and religious cultures behind the performances, including the final bitter struggle surrounding its last performance in 1575. Taken together, the evidence suggests that the town developed an awareness of its reflected image in the plays and that the Town Assembly had an increasingly anxious collective ego stake in the performances.
In this paper I explore the material circumstances surrounding this last ...