Vision and Audience in Medieval Drama ─ A Study of the Castle of Perseverance

This book presents a re-evaluation of The Castle of Perseverance, the longest and earliest complete morality play in English. It argues that vision - as a physical, moral, and cognitive process - is the organizing principle that informs this play's staging, structure and narrative, and its constantly shifting actor/audience relationships. Theories such as intromission and extramission, and their associated power shifts, are placed alongside a re-interpretation of the famous stage plan, approaching the text in terms of spectator experience. The writings of Augustine, Grosseteste, and Peter of Limoges are also explored. This study will take the reader through the play in the same way that it unfolds for the audience members, in keeping with the audience experience approach. The visual culture of East Anglia, and its textiles in particular, are also identified as central to the play's moral and dramatic work and the battle at the center of the play.

Andrea Louise Young is an independent scholar based in the UK, with a specialty in Medieval Drama. She has taught at the universities of Liverpool, Manchester, and Liverpool Hope, UK. She currently teaches at the Centre for Continuing Education at the University of Liverpool, UK.