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Body, Site and Memory in the Croxton Play of the Sacrament

Wright, Clare (2014) Body, Site and Memory in the Croxton Play of the Sacrament. In: Bennett, Susan and Polito, Mary, eds. Performing Environments: Site-Specificty in Medieval and Early Modern English Drama. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, UK and New York, pp. 159-179. ISBN 978-1-137-32016-2. E-ISBN 978-1-137-32017-9. (doi:10.1057/9781137320179) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:54972)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://www.palgrave.com/br/book/9781137320162

Abstract

Imagining a production in the churchyard of All Saints in Croxton, East Anglia, the essay draws on recent advances in cognitive science to illustrate how embodied experience of The Play of the Sacrament might have affected an audience’s relationship with the site of performance. The author argues that the first half of the play distracts from the spiritual and communal associations of both site and Eucharist, implicating the spectators in the Host’s torture through their instinctive, immediate responses to the physicality of performance. The devotional and social significance of Eucharistic belief is then reinforced through the audience’s physical participation in processions and prayers, their associated emotions and memories further uniting the experience of performance with the experience of ritual enacted within All Saints church.

Item Type: Book section
DOI/Identification number: 10.1057/9781137320179
Subjects: P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN1600 Drama
P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN2000 Dramatic representation. The theatre
P Language and Literature > PR English literature
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Arts and Humanities > School of English
Depositing User: Clare Wright
Date Deposited: 20 May 2016 15:35 UTC
Last Modified: 17 Aug 2022 11:00 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/54972 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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