DOI
https://doi.org/10.25772/XNP6-CB89
Defense Date
2008
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts
Department
Theatre
Abstract
It is important to remember that the categories of medieval performance were established far removed from their period in history. As a genre, the morality play includes a wide diversity of time, geography, content and performance styles. Such disparities have made it difficult to develop a comprehensive definition, without which comparisons between works cannot be consistent. As scholarship continues to explore these works in context of their performance, it becomes increasingly important to identify which performance styles best inform their production. In examining The Castle of Perseverance within the parameters of pas d’armes, new meanings can be drawn from its text. Instead of simply incorporating the conventions of tournament staging, the play exposes the faults of the secular societies they were intended to promote. Currently it is impossible to determine definitely that The Castle of Perseverance was intended to be a subversion of the pas d’armes. There is no identified author or even record of a single performance in medieval times. Yet the circumstantial evidence within the text supports the theory of subversion. Further research is still needed on the performance of The Castle of Perseverance within the appropriate historical context in order to better understand its place within the larger canon of medieval drama.
Rights
© The Author
Is Part Of
VCU University Archives
Is Part Of
VCU Theses and Dissertations
Date of Submission
August 2008