Barker, Jill (1992) Characterizations of otherness in the sixteenth century moral plays and their morality actecedents. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

Beginning with an analysis of the nature of the Morality play and its near
relative, the moral play, this thesis finds both forms to be founded on an adversarial
view of the world (Chapter One). The nature of the adversary is variable, and that
variation is, in turn, revealing about the plays' philosophical position.
The theories of Jacques Lacan suggest a reading of
Mundus & Infan s, The
Castle of Perseveraunce, and Youth as descriptions of selfhood via
language-
acquisition (Chapter Two). Psychoanalytic theory also suggests that otherness may
involve both the rule-making Other of authority and a transgressive 'other', broadly
analogous to repressed desire. The
moral plays
discuss the latter version of
otherness through their construction of an
increasingly elaborated 'vice figure'. A
reading of Mankind demonstrates the interpretative power of this approach (Chapter
Three).

In the 1560's
and
70's,
vice
behaviour becomes more complex, and so more
ambiguous. Deconstructive theories suggest that this change can usefully
be
read as
equivalent to the tendency of
linguistic terms towards meaninglessness.
The Tyde
Tarrieth No Man is
an example.
Otherness comes to be located in
certain
'abjected'
social groups.
In
addition, vice play radically alters the original structure of the
moral play, tending to
replace narrative with showmanship.
Enough is
as
Good
as a
Feast
and
Like Will to Like demonstrate this point.
All For Money, however,
uses
dramatic
structures symbolically, restoring meaning to vice play
(Chapter Four).
Feminist theory leads
me to consider the place of woman as other
in the
moral plays. In The Play of the Wether, the endightement of mother messe and
Lingua the 'female
vice'
figure is developed (Chapter Five). The social
implications of that figure
are considered through analyses of
The Rare Triumphs of
Love
and Fortune and Lingua (Chapter Six). Finally, the figure
of the 'good
woman' is found to undergo increasing criticism, as the plays come to encode virtue
as undesirable, and perhaps impossible (Chapter Seven).
A Conclusion
summarizes the main arguments of the thesis.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN0080 Criticism P Language and Literature > PR English literature
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	English drama -- 16th century -- History and criticism, Moralities -- History and criticism, Moralities, English -- History and criticism, Drama, Medieval, Christian drama, English -- History and criticism
Official Date:	April 1992
Dates:	Date Event April 1992 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Extent:	ii, 354 leaves
Language:	eng

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