IMC 2003: Sessions
Session 323: The Language of Abuse and Authority in the Mystery Plays
Monday 14 July 2003, 16.30-18.00
Sponsor: | Department of English, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela |
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Moderator/Chair: | John S. McKinnell, Centre for Medieval & Renaissance Studies |
Respondent: | John S. McKinnell, Centre for Medieval & Renaissance Studies |
Paper 323-a | The Language of Abuse and Authority in the Chester Cycle (Language: English) Index terms: Language and Literature - Middle English |
Paper 323-b | Language of Treason and Punishment in the York Cycle (Language: English) Index terms: Language and Literature - Middle English |
Abstract | The Mystery Plays were enacted by craftsmen, artisans, peasants, shepherds, and attended basically by a lay and illiterate audience. So oral performance was put to an essentially festive and popular end. Such vigour and vivacity might lead us to believe that the language of abuse and authority used in the plays reflected on the whole the colloquial speech of the working class. Expletives and insults are analysed in their own context. |