Carnival and Theater (Routledge Revivals): Plebian Culture and The Structure of Authority in Renaissance England [Hardcover]

In this title, first published in 1985, Michael Bristol draws on several theoretical and critical traditions to study the nature and purpose of theatre as a social institution: on Marxism, and its revisions in the work of Mikhail Bakhtin; on the theories of Emile Durkheim and their adaptations in the work of Victor Turner; and on the history of social life and material culture as practiced by the Annales school. This valuable work is an important contribution to literary criticism, theatre studies and social history and has particular importance for scholars interested in the dramatic literature of Elizabethan England.

In this title, first published in 1985, Michael Bristol draws on several theoretical and critical traditions to study the nature and purpose of theatre as a social institution. This valuable work is an important contribution to literary criticism, theatre studies and social history and has particular importance for scholars interested in the dramatic literature of Elizabethan England.

&Bristol has written a worthwhile and stimulating book that places the theatrical experience in a new and illuminating historical context  Theatre Survey

Bristols is a complex and impressive argument, making us reconsider traditional evaluations of individual plays  Times Higher Education Supplement

In Carnival and Theater, Michael Bristol presents a careful blend of literary criticism and social history. With its sophisticated theoretical framework and its convincing demonstration of the polyvocal and multi-layered nature of cultural production, Carnival and Theater provides and exemplary model of cultural criticism that will be valuable to scholars from a variety of disciplines and perspectives  Journal of Social History