Signifying God: Social Relation and Symbolic Act in the York Corpus Christi Plays

by Sarah Beckwith

First staged as early as 1376, the York Corpus Christi plays were performed annually until the late 1500s and involved as much as a tenth of the city in multiple performances at a dozen or more locations. Signifying God shows how organizing the plays served as a political mechanism for regulating labor, and how theater and sacrament combined in them to do important theological work.

Genres: Medieval, History

312 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2001

Reviews

[Nicole · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hate this book. I vehemently hate this book. Normally, I would note that I don't hate it because of the ideas it puts forth, but that would require me to actually have an idea of what ideas it's trying to put forth. No, my hate purely stems from the writing style. Now I will admit that this probably wasn't written with undergrads who are just trying to sludge through getting enough credits to graduate and don't have the time to dissect every single sprawling sentence in mind, but that's where I'm coming from. Every sentence is needlessly long, roundabout, and difficult to grasp. Interjections that detour somewhere else and mask the main idea of a sentence or paragraph are as frequent as parts of the sentence that actually contribute to the main point. Quotes and phrases are included in their original language (which I respect) but with no translation. As much as I wish I was fluent in every language and dialect under the sun, I woefully am not. And the vocabulary used? I am amazed there are so many words that I've never encountered before in my life that are completely equivalent to every day words. Reading the actual Middle English York Cycle is easier than trying to grasp this analysis of them. And I also really hate Middle English.

[Beth Bauman · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fascinating, complex, and DEEP book about how medieval communities (specifically, the city of York) engaged in their Biblical drama and their relationship to the body of Christ (literally, the Corpus Christi). Having studied the York Corpus Christi Cycle plays in University last term, I had a preliminary understanding of what it meant for this medieval audience to see the embodiment of Christ played by various actors in their midst, but this book gave me a much deeper understanding of how this theatre's nuance extended to the Eucharist and what it meant to be the "body of Christ" as a community engaging in Christ's death, resurrection, and work of salvation.

Sarah Beckwith's writing is complicated and DENSE - always interesting, but hard to get through. I ended up giving myself a goal of reading two pages each day, which worked quite well.

[emilia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like how Beckwith writes. Her research is thorough and well-grounded in theoretical and cultural/historical frameworks, but her arguments are incisive, creative, and engaging to read. This is perhaps a niche topic but I think that the problems of 'signifying God' which this book considers could be central to many broader discussions of art, writing, performance, and life.