This thesis explores the implications of the relationships between building trade
guilds and the pageants they produced in York, and examines this relationship over the
two-hundred-year production of the York Cycle. Because this relationship and the
reception of any dramatic performance is heavily influenced by context, we need to look
closer at the social, political, and economic environment of late medieval York in order to
better understand the range of interpretations available to the Cycle's original audience.
Doing so also allows us to witness the issues of identity and community that are
negotiated throughout these plays. Chapter 1 examines the guilds responsible for most
day-to-day construction (the plasters, tilers, and carpenters) and explores the
interpretations that the conjunction of guild casting, play text, and historical context
invites. The Plasterers' "Creation" deals with issues of labour and political power,
economic fluctuations influence representations of family and community in the Tilers'
"Nativity," and the Carpenters' "Resurrection" explores issues of integrity and urban
corruption, while also representing a struggle for social authority. Chapter Two considers
the participation of groups outside of civic jurisdiction, most particularly the Masons, and
investigates the ways in which the York Cycle may have cut across boundaries (or united
"separate" groups) instead of, or as well as, reinforcing them. Finally, the changing
contexts that in turn changed (or re-focused) the meanings of these texts reveal the
boundaries over and through which concepts of identity and community were negotiated.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/10577 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Christie, Sheila |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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