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Author Murakami, Ineke

Title Moral play and counterpublic : transformations in moral drama, 1465-1599 / Ineke Murakami
Published New York : Routledge, 2011

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Description 1 online resource (xii, 247 pages)
Series Routledge studies in Renaissance literature and culture ; 18
Routledge studies in Renaissance literature and culture ; 18.
Contents Introduction : "public, scurrilous and profane" : moral drama 1465-1599 -- Mankind : publicizing the new guise -- William Wager : monstrous ambition and the public weal -- History as allegory : chronicle plays and the bid for public office -- Rhetorical revolt : Marlowe's theater of the public enemy -- Public judgment : the virtue of vice in Jonson's sin city -- Epilogue : death comes to moral drama
Summary "In this study, Murakami overturns the misconception that popular English morality plays were simple medieval vehicles for disseminating conservative religious doctrine. On the contrary, Murakami finds that moral drama came into its own in the sixteenth century as a method for challenging normative views on ethics, economics, social rank, and political obligation. From its inception in itinerate troupe productions of the late fifteenth century, "moral play" served not as a cloistered form, but as a volatile public forum. This book demonstrates how the genre's apparently inert conventions from allegorical characters to the battle between good and evil for Mankind's soul veiled critical explorations of topical issues. Through close analysis of plays representing key moments of formal and ideological innovation from 1465 to 1599, Murakami makes a new argument for what is at stake in the much-discussed anxiety around the entwined social practices of professional theater and the emergent capitalist market. Moral play fostered a phenomenon that was ultimately more threatening to the peace of the realm than either theater or the notorious market--a political self-consciousness that gave rise to ephemeral, non-elite counterpublics who defined themselves against institutional forms of authority"-- Provided by publisher
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes English
Print version record
Subject Moralities, English -- History and criticism
English drama -- Early modern and Elizabethan, 1500-1600 -- History and criticism
Literature and society -- England -- London -- History -- 16th century
Christian drama, English -- History and criticism
LITERARY CRITICISM -- Renaissance.
LITERARY CRITICISM -- Medieval.
LITERARY CRITICISM -- General.
DRAMA -- English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh.
Christian drama, English
English drama -- Early modern and Elizabethan
Literature and society
Moralities, English
England -- London
Genre/Form Criticism, interpretation, etc.
History
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2011000399
ISBN 9780203828267
0203828267
1283103702
9781283103701
9786613103703
6613103705