Research Catalog

Transgressive language in medieval English drama : signs of challenge and change

Title
Transgressive language in medieval English drama : signs of challenge and change / Lynn Forest-Hill.
Author
Forest-Hill, Lynn.
Publication
Aldershot, Hants, England ; Burlington, Vt. : Ashgate, ©2000.

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StatusFormatAccessCall NumberItem Location
TextUse in library PR641 .F67 2000Off-site

Details

Description
215 pages; 23 cm
Summary
  • "The author begins by defining what constitutes sinful or transgressive language in the later medieval period, and establishes its moral significance. She then illustrates how the moral significance of language is used in drama to define the spiritual and social status of characters, and introduces the concept of sinful language as a sign of spiritual change. In later chapters Transgressive Language in Medieval English Drama explores the use of 'bad' language in mystery and morality plays, focusing specifically on Skelton's Magnyfycence, Heywood's The Play of the Weather, and Bale's King Johan."
  • "The study shows the extent to which the moral significance of language in drama shifted during the sixteenth century under pressure from cultural and political change, paving the way for less morally rigorous and more socially sensitive definitions of 'bad' language."--Jacket.
Subject
  • To 1500
  • English drama > To 1500 > History and criticism
  • English language > Middle English, 1100-1500 > Discourse analysis
  • Literature and society > England > History > To 1500
  • Language and culture > England > History > To 1500
  • Discourse analysis, Literary
  • Invective in literature
  • literary criticism
  • English drama
  • Language and culture
  • Literature and society
  • Middelengels
  • Toneelstukken
  • Scheldwoorden
  • Vloeken
  • England
Genre/Form
  • Criticism, interpretation, etc.
  • History.
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references (p. [197]-209) and index.
Contents
Language law and drama -- Transgressive language and characterization -- Social comment, religious dissent, and audience response in the biblical plays -- Transgressive language in three fifteenth-century morality plays -- Magnyfycence: signs of change in the sixteenth century -- The Play of the Weather: entertainment and religious anxiety -- King Johan: the language of virtue and reformation.
ISBN
  • 0754600866
  • 9780754600862
LCCN
99042634
OCLC
  • ocm42021525
  • 42021525
  • SCSB-1141039
Owning Institutions
Princeton University Library