Description
Book SynopsisPathos as Communicative Strategy in Late-Medieval Religious Drama and Art explores the strategies employed to trigger emotional responses in late-medieval dramatic texts from several Western European traditions, and juxtaposes these texts with artistic productions from the same areas, with an emphasis on Britain. The aim is to unravel the mechanisms through which pathos was produced and employed, mainly through the representation of pain and suffering, with mainly religious, but also political aims. The novelty of the book resides in its specific linguistic perspective, which highlights the recurrent use of words, structures and dialogic patterns in drama to reinforce messages on the salvific value of suffering, in synergy with visual messages produced in the same cultural milieu.
Trade Review"Pathos in Late-Medieval Drama and Art identifies a ‘pathos formula’ in the Middle Ages. Whilst there are certain techniques unique to specific genres and art-forms, which Mazzon pinpoints and critiques, she is persuasive in her argument that there is a unified attempt by the Church to use pathos as a communicative strategy, evident in both art and literature." -Hetta Elizabeth Howes, City University of London, in Emotions: History, Culture, Society, Vol. 3, No. 1 (2019) pp. 180-181
Table of ContentsContents Acknowledgements List of Figures Introduction 1 Words and Images in the late Middle Ages: the Social Functions of Drama and Art 1.1 Iconography and Textual Studies 1.2 The Development of Visual Narratives and New Images 1.3 The Word Enacted 1.4 ‘Modern Piety’ and Identification: the Importance of Presence 1.5 Witnessing and Social Control: the Value of Memory 2 The Codification of the Public Display of Emotions 2.1 Emotions and Public Communication 2.2 Looking at the Language 2.3 Reading the Visual Arts 2.4 Talking to the Congregacyoun 2.5 Writing Paths to Salvation 123 3 Verbal and Visual Rhetoric: Lexicon and Grammar 3.1 The Rhetoric of Parental Love 3.2 The Rhetoric of Crime and Punishment 3.3 The Rhetoric of Social Structure: the Powerful and the Rejected 3.4 The Rhetoric of Pain and Memory 3.5 The Rhetoric of Mourning and Glory 4 The Outward Gaze: Effective Audience Engagement Conclusion Bibliography Index
