Drama and the Death of God: Secularity on Stage from Antiquity to Shakespeare / John Parker.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Parker, John, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Drama--History and criticism.

Drama.

Secularism in literature.

Religion and drama.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 2026.

Biography/History:

John Parker is Associate Professor of English at the University of Virginia. He is the author of The Aesthetics of Antichrist.

Summary:

In Drama and the Death of God, John Parker argues that the secularity often associated with Shakespeare inspired a variety of performances going back to antiquity. Scripture presupposes, even needs, the existence of a worldly sphere inimical to faith: known as the saeculum, this finite domain of appetite and unbelief invited both condemnation and celebration throughout medieval Christendom, as exemplified by the songs and plays of the Carmina Burana. After the tenth century, Christians routinely impersonated unbelievers in music dramas connected to the high holidays so that they might question biblical truths, especially the authenticity of miracles. The church generated by this means a vision of the godless world that modernity stepped into. After the English Reformation, when Europe's first commercial theaters arose on ruined monastic estates, players continued to showcase how divine intervention could be staged by humans in the absence of God. King Lear in particular explores the ancient proposition that the saeculum holds no inherent meaning and is capable of generating only pseudo miraculous spectacles to salve the ache of existence.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

Note On Texts and Translations

Abbreviations

Introduction Unbelief, Secularity, Secularization

Chapter 1. The Birth of Unbelief

Chapter 2. Egypt and the Invention of the Saeculum

Chapter 3. The Secularization of the Liturgy

Chapter 4. The Disenchantment of Astrology

Chapter 5. King Lear and the Copernican Revolution

Chapter 6. Medicine and the Secularization of Miracles

Epilogue Secularization After Shakespeare

Acknowledgments

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages) and index.

ISBN:

1501785303