Death by drama and other medieval urban legends
By: Jody Enders.
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 2002
Place of publication: Chicago
Language: eng
Number of pages: 324
Subjects: Theater -- Europe -- History -- Medieval, 500-1500; Drama, Medieval -- History and criticism; Legends in literature
Description: "Part of every legend is true. Or so argues Jody Enders in this fascinating look at early French drama and the way it compels us to consider where the stage ends and where real life begins.

This ambitious and bracing study explores fourteen tales of the theater that are at turns dark and dangerous, sexy and scandalous, humorous and frightening - stories that are nurtured by the confusion between truth and fiction, and imitation and enactment, until it becomes impossible to tell whether life is imitating art or art is imitating life.".

"Was a convicted criminal executed on stage during a beheading scene? Was an unfortunate actor driven insane while playing a madman? Did a theatrical enactment of a crucifixion result in a real one? Did an androgynous young man seduce a priest while portraying a female saint? In answering these and other questions, Enders presents a treasure trove of tales that have long seemed true but are actually medieval urban legends.

On topics such as politics, religion, marriage, class, and law, these tales, Enders argues, do the cultural work of all urban legends: they disclose the hopes, fears, and anxieties of their tellers. Each one represents a medieval meditation created or dramatized by the theater with its power to blur the line between fiction and reality, engaging anyone who watches, performs, or is represented by it.

Each one also raises pressing questions about the medieval and modern world on the eve of the Reformation, when Europe had never engaged more anxiously and fervently in the great debate about what was real, what was pretend, and what was pretense." "Death by Drama and Other Medieval Urban Legends will interest scholars of medieval and Renaissance literature, history, theater, performance studies, and anyone curious about urban legends."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 291-315) and index.
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note: Introduction: Medieval Urban Legends? i; title: PART I: TELLING THE DIFFERENCE; title: 1 Lusting after Saints 17; title: 2 Queer Attractions 29; title: 3 Of Madness and Method Acting 43; title: 4 Two Priests and the Hand of God 55; title: 5 Dying to Play 67; title: 6 The Eel of Melun 79; title: 7 The Devil Who Wasn't There 91; title: PART II: MAKE-BELIEVE; title: 8 The Laughter of the Children o05; title: 9 Burnt Theatrical Offerings 18; title: 10 Theater's Living Dead 131; title: 11 The Mysterious Quarry 143; title: 12 Seeing Is Believing 156; title: 13 The Suicide of Despair 169; title: 14 Death by Drama 182; title: Epilogue: The Moment of Truth 197; title: Appendix: Original Documents in French and Latin 203.