Recycling the Cycle : : The City of Chester and Its Whitsun Plays / / David Mills.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Toronto Press eBook-Package Archive 1933-1999
• VerfasserIn: Mills, David,
• Place / Publishing House: Toronto : : University of Toronto Press, , [2016]; ©1998
• Year of Publication: 2016
• Language: English
• Series: Studies in Early English Drama
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (320 p.)

A consciousness of the past has been an essential determinant of community in the city of Chester, England. This awareness and fascination has been bolstered by a strong civic tradition of drama. In particular, the city's Whitsun Plays have been a vehicle for communicating the myth of the city's medieval heritage, helping to reinforce the sense of history that is part of Chester's identity.Building up the material in REED: Chester, David Mills has produced a detailed study of Chester's Whitsun Plays in their local, physical, social, political, cultural, and religious context. A continuum has survived between the Middle Ages and the present day, providing not only an understanding of the plays themselves, but a narrative of the ways in which manuscripts survive and the functions that they serve. The continued performance of these plays is significant of modern play revivals as a political and sociological phenomenon, demonstrating the power that these rituals and plays still hold.›Recycling the Cycle is not only a look at how medieval and Renaissance cultural traditions developed and were maintained over centuries, but an insight into how those traditions can stay fresh and relevant, even today.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Abbreviations -- Play Manuscripts -- 1. Approaches to Early Drama -- 2. Time and Space in Tudor Chester -- 3. Writing the Record -- 4. A Spectrum of Ceremonial and Entertainment -- 5. The Midsummer Celebrations -- 6. Religious Feasts and Festivals -- 7. Professionalism, Commercialism, and Self-Advertisement -- 8. The Past in the Present: The Text of the Whitsun Plays -- 9. Manuscripts, Scribes, and Owners -- 10 .Medievalism and Revival -- Postscript -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index