Theater, Culture, and Community in Reformation Bern, 1523-1555

Erscheinungsjahr 2001
ISBN: 978-90-04-12353-3
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 85, 350 Seiten, Format (B × H): 164 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 871 g

Reihe: Studies in Medieval and Reform

This study examines the sociocultural context of ten plays performed during the formative years of the Bernese Reformation. It treats not only three pre-reform carnival plays by Niklaus Manuel, but also six newly edited works by local court secretary Hans von Rüte.
Individual chapters focus on the plays’ polemics, staging, and choruses, as well as on local Zwinglian reform. An appendix contains the plays’ fifteen song texts.
The vivid staging and choral interludes of Bern’s Reformation theater belie the assumption that the city’s Zwinglian reform, which eliminated imagery and song from religious worship, rejected images and music in all forms. The confessional diatribe of Rüte’s later works further illuminates Bern’s policies towards Zurich and Geneva, demonstrating that biblical plays were no less political than their carnival predecessors.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Ehrstine, Glenn

Fachgebiete

• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft | Kulturwissenschaften Kulturwissenschaften

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface and Acknowledgements
Illustrations
Abbreviations

1. Performing the Protestant Reformation
2. Bern at the Crossroads of Reform
3. Protestant Carnival: A Contradiction in Terms?
4. Theocracy and Theater
5. Protestant Visual Culture and the Stage
6. Music, Play, and Worship
7. Mediating Change

Appendix: Song Texts

Bibliography
Index of Persons
Index of Places
Index of Subjects
Index of Biblical Citations

Über Autor(innen)

Glenn Ehrstine, Ph.D. (1995), University of Texas at Austin, is Associate Professor of German at the University of Iowa. He has authored articles on medieval and Reformation literature in Daphnis, Euphorion, The Sixteenth Century Journal, and other publications.