Medieval Latin Performative Representation: Re-evaluating the State-of-the-Art

This article discusses the state-of-the-art of ‘liturgical drama’ scholarship focusing on the question of long-term historical narratives of what in scholarship has been subsumed under this (problematic) notion. This concerns historical continuities and changes from early simple Quem quaeritis ceremonies to more complex ceremonies in later centuries. The former were liturgical and without any need to think of them as dramas. By contrast, larger, complex ceremonies, appearing especially from the twelfth century onward, contain entertaining features pointing to drama in a modern sense. The anthropology-inspired scholarship of Clifford Flanigan several decades ago and a focus on changing understandings of the notion of a sacrament form the background for suggesting relevant types of such long-term narratives. They concern how liturgical enactments over the centuries were received, re-contextualised, and re-composed, often in quite new ways.