Plays, Politics and Pedagogy: Lancastrian Drama c.1400–1461

Claridge, Alexandra (2023) Plays, Politics and Pedagogy: Lancastrian Drama c.1400–1461. Doctor of Philosophy thesis, University of Liverpool.

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Abstract

The Lancastrian kings are well known historical figures but comparatively little is known about the culture of drama and performance which surrounded them. Plays, Politics and Pedagogy: Lancastrian Drama c.1400–1461 explores the extensive culture of dramatic activity engaged in by members of the Lancastrian family. Drama in the early fifteenth-century society was often shaped by political concerns but, when Henry VI became king aged nine months, politics and drama was reorientated around a child. A study of Lancastrian drama necessarily includes dramatic activity for and about children. Consequently, this thesis offers a rare case study in contextualising fifteenth-century child-focused drama. Through connecting extant play texts to historical records, this study finds a flourishing culture of pedagogical drama among the Lancastrian family and their networks. The core texts upon which this study is based are diverse. Some are by well-known writers, such as John Lydgate or Titus Livius Frulovisi, while others, like ‘The Winchester Dialogues’, are anonymous. Reading these texts in their historical context and connecting them with members of a single, if powerful, family, allows this thesis to reveal how the concerns of the Lancastrian court, including anxieties about childhood, were expressed through drama.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctor of Philosophy)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Childhood, Drama, fifteenth century, Henry VI, Lancastrian
Divisions:	Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of the Arts
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	25 Aug 2023 15:27
Last Modified:	25 Aug 2023 15:27
DOI:	10.17638/03170894
Supervisors:	Peverley, Sarah Duxfield, Andrew
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3170894