Horrific Visions of the Host: A Meditation on Genre1. (May 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Johnson, Eleanor
• Is Part Of: Exemplaria. Volume 27:Number 1/2(2015)
• Page Start: 150
• Page End: 166
• Publication Date: 2015-05
• Subjects: horror, -- Croxton Play of the Sacrament, -- Cleanness, -- participation, -- affective, -- cognitive, -- community; European literature -- Renaissance, 1450-1600 -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; Literature, Medieval -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; Middle Ages -- Periodicals; 809.0205
• DOI: 10.1179/1041257315Z.00000000069
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1041-2573

Abstract

Abstract : This essay examines Cleanness alongside the Play of the Sacrament, to show how two disparate works can productively be studied together by thinking of genre as a formal leveraging of consonant cognitive and affective states. Specifically, by thinking of genre in this way, the essay argues that these works are "horror" narratives of Host desecration and that they share an interest in how to make their horrific stories participatory for an audience, as well as in how that participation relates to community-level participation in Christian ritual.