Mary Magdalene and the Drama of Saints

Theresa Coletti is Professor of English at the University of Maryland. She is author of Naming the Rose: Eco, Medieval Signs, and Modern Theory.

• List of IllustrationsPrefaceIntroduction1. The Drama of Saints2. Some East Anglian Magdalenes3. Mystic and Preacher4. Gender and the Anthropology of Redemption5. Bodies, Theater, and Sacred Mediations6. ConclusionAbbreviationsNotesWorks CitedIndex

"The book is magisterial: learned, gracefully written, intelligent, and aware." (Gail McMurray Gibson, Davidson College) "The importance of this study cannot be underestimated." (Medieval Review) "Coletti scrupulously traces an elusive web of associations-texts, practices, patrons-in order to reconstruct the play's complex engagement of social, political, and religious concerns on the eve of the Reformation in England. In doing so, she calls for a long-overdue reassessment of both the play's and East Anglian culture's place in English literary, social, and religious history." (Renaissance Quarterly) "This fascinating and important interdisciplinary study of theatrical practice . . . reveals the importance of Middle English drama to the religious environment of fifteenth-century England" (Religious Studies Review) "In this richly rewarding book, Coletti is chiefly interested in the questions that Mary Magdalene raises about women and institutionalized religion, spirituality, and sexuality, and the possibilities and limits of female religious authority. Coletti pursues these questions by concentrating on one play, the extraordinary East Anglian drama on the life of Mary Magdalene. . . . Coletti provides a probing account of devotional and mystical texts, saints' legends, homiletic traditions, and other religious writings. . . . A masterful report on the cultural meanings of one medieval performance, but also a compelling account of how such performances matter for literary and cultural history." (Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England)