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IMC 2014: Sessions

Session 1025: Emperors and Tyrants in Religious Plays

Wednesday 9 July 2014, 09.00-10.30

Sponsor:Société Internationale pour l'Étude du Théâtre Médiéval (SITM)
Organiser:Cora Dietl, Institut für Germanistik, Justus-Liebig-Universität, Gießen
Moderator/Chair:Cora Dietl, Institut für Germanistik, Justus-Liebig-Universität, Gießen
Paper 1025-aIrdische Herrschaft im Antichristspiel zwischen Relativierung und Konsolidierung
(Language: Deutsch)
Silvan Wagner, Lehrstuhl für Ältere Deutsche Philologie, Universität Bayreuth
Index terms: Language and Literature - German, Language and Literature - Latin, Performance Arts - Drama
Paper 1025-bWiener Fronleichnamsspiele im Kontext imperialer Interessen
(Language: Deutsch)
Aneta Białecka, Independent Scholar, Wien
Index terms: Performance Arts - General, Performance Arts - Drama, Political Thought, Social History
Paper 1025-cThe Comic Fury of the Raging Tyrant: The Representation of Herod in Medieval Plays and the Classical Roots of Medieval Drama
(Language: English)
Péter Tóth, Department of Theology & Religious Studies, King's College London
Index terms: Language and Literature - Middle English, Learning (The Classical Inheritance), Performance Arts - Drama, Rhetoric
Abstract

Religious plays that represent the salvation history can't avoid depicting secular rulers, who can either appear as legitimate representatives of the divine order, or as its opponents. The papers in this session ask about the strategies by which medieval Corpus Christi and Antichrist plays use the potential of the stage for their discussions of the idea of kingship and possibly for supporting or criticizing the contemporary emperor's or king's politics. They also enquire how the plays refer to traditional literary or dramatic patterns for the explanation of tyranny.