Journal article

Publication year: 2023

Pages: 121-139

Journal: Skenè: journal of theatre and drama studies

Volume number: 9

Issue number: 1

DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.13136/sjtds.v9i1.403

Publisher: Skenè Research Centre

Abstract: 

The Book of Esther was extremely popular as a dramatic subject in the German speaking countries in sixteenth and early seventeenth century, especially in Protestant regions. The several feasts mentioned in the biblical book gave the opportunity to draw connecting links between festive contexts of the performances of these plays, and to consider and display the effect of performative presentations. The chapter chooses three out of twenty preserved texts (by Valten Voith, Hans Sachs, and Jos Murer) and analyzes the significance of the feast and banquet scenes in these plays. These scenes reveal to be essential for the political, religious, and moral interpretation of the biblical book in each play.

Harvard Citation style: Dietl, C. (2023) The Feast of Performance: Esther in Sixteenth-Century German Plays, Skenè: journal of theatre and drama studies, 9(1), pp. 121-139. https://doi.org/10.13136/sjtds.v9i1.403

APA Citation style: Dietl, C. (2023). The Feast of Performance: Esther in Sixteenth-Century German Plays. Skenè: journal of theatre and drama studies. 9(1), 121-139. https://doi.org/10.13136/sjtds.v9i1.403