The Routledge Research Companion to Early Drama and Performance

The study of early drama has undergone a quiet revolution in the last four decades, radically altering critical approaches to form, genre, and canon. Drawing on disciplines from art history to musicology and reception studies, the nineteen essays in The Routledge Research Companion to Early Drama and Performance reconsiders early "drama" as a mixed mode entertainment best studied not only alongside non-dramatic texts, but also other modes of performance. From performance before the coming of the custom-built playhouse to the afterlife of medieval drama in the contemporary avant-garde, the collection is divided into four sections: Northern European Playing before the Playhouse; Modes of Production and Reception; Reviewing the Anglophone Tradition, and The Long Middle Ages Overall the volume offers a reassessment of what is generally understood as "English medieval drama", providing a comprehensive resource for both students and scholars of medieval studies