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Playing the Martyr

Theater and Theology in Early Modern France

Christopher Semk

Playing the Martyr is a book about the interplay between theater and religion in early modern France. Challenging the standard narrative of modernity as a process of increased secularization Christopher Semk demonstrates the centrality of religious thought and practices to the development of neoclassical poetics. Engaging with a broad corpus of religious plays, poetic treatises, devotional literature, and contemporary theory, Semk shows that religion was a vital interlocutor in early modern discussions concerning the definition of verisimilitude, the nature and purpose of spectacle, the mechanics of acting, and the position of the spectator. Well researched and persuasively argued, Playing the Martyr makes the case for a more complicated approach to the relationship between religion and literature, namely, one that does not treat religion as a theme deployed within literary works, but as an active player in literary invention. Indeed, it makes the case for a serious reconsideration of the role that religion plays in the development of modern, secular literary forms.

University Press Copublishing Division / Bucknell University Press

Pages: 198 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-1-61148-803-6 • Hardback • January 2017 • $88.00 • (£68.00)

978-1-61148-804-3 • eBook • January 2017 • $83.50 • (£64.00)

Series: Scènes Francophones

Subjects: Literary Criticism / European / French, Literary Criticism / Drama, Performing Arts / Theater / History & Criticism

Playing the Martyr

Theater and Theology in Early Modern France

Hardback

eBook

Summary

Playing the Martyr is a book about the interplay between theater and religion in early modern France. Challenging the standard narrative of modernity as a process of increased secularization Christopher Semk demonstrates the centrality of religious thought and practices to the development of neoclassical poetics. Engaging with a broad corpus of religious plays, poetic treatises, devotional literature, and contemporary theory, Semk shows that religion was a vital interlocutor in early modern discussions concerning the definition of verisimilitude, the nature and purpose of spectacle, the mechanics of acting, and the position of the spectator. Well researched and persuasively argued, Playing the Martyr makes the case for a more complicated approach to the relationship between religion and literature, namely, one that does not treat religion as a theme deployed within literary works, but as an active player in literary invention. Indeed, it makes the case for a serious reconsideration of the role that religion plays in the development of modern, secular literary forms.

Details

University Press Copublishing Division / Bucknell University Press

Pages: 198 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-1-61148-803-6 • Hardback • January 2017 • $88.00 • (£68.00)

978-1-61148-804-3 • eBook • January 2017 • $83.50 • (£64.00)

Series: Scènes Francophones

Subjects: Literary Criticism / European / French, Literary Criticism / Drama, Performing Arts / Theater / History & Criticism

Author

Christopher Semk is assistant professor of French at Yale University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction: A Christian Melpomene?
Chapter 1: The Separation of Church and Stage
Chapter 2: The Spectacle of Martyrdom and the Spectacle of the Stage
Chapter 3: “Ex histrionis martyr factus:” Genesius, Acting, and Martyrdom
Chapter 4: Polyeucte, martyr and Corneille’s Sacramental Poetics
Epilogue: Theater and Theology at the Threshold of Modernity
Bibliography
Index

Playing the Martyr

Theater and Theology in Early Modern France

Christopher Semk

Playing the Martyr

Theater and Theology in Early Modern France

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