French and Francophone Literature Commons^™

Carol J. Harvey, Medieval French Miracle Plays: Seven Falsely Accused Women., Vicki L. Hamblin

Modern & Classical Languages

The miracle plays of the fourteenth century brought sacred and secular narratives to the stages of medieval France. These relatively short performances present an episode in the life of a model Christian who faces a particularly difficult conflict or threat from within the social hierarchy of the medieval era or from among the dark forces emanating from hell. Predictably, divine intervention sustains the protagonist’s righteousness, remorse, steadfastness, or courage so that s/he triumphs against these threats. Given their proclivity for this authoritative and moralistic backdrop, miracle plays tend to share a number of thematic and dramatic conventions. Alongside divine mediation …