4 - Signifying Women
from Part I - Performing Gender
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2012
Summary
The Norwich Grocers' inventory from their 1563 production of The Fall of Man lists ‘A Rybbe colleryd Red’. This record reveals something of the significance of the semiotics of medieval drama. On the most simplistic level the bone indicates Eve's construction from Adam's ‘spare rib’. However, it is possible that the red rib served a number of complex symbolic functions. This piece of bone prefigures the fragmented body of Christ at the crucifixion. Salvation history is emphasised through reminding the audience of the resurrection. There are also a number of gender-specific signs embedded within this red rib. Eve's creation from Adam's rib is a type of gender-reversed ‘birth’. The bloody red rib also symbolises Eve's guilt during the Fall. The existence of this red rib demonstrates some of the complex ways in which visual symbols may have operated within medieval drama. In particular this bloodied rib indicates how the body offers a site for the exploration of gender issues. This chapter will explore how the medieval ‘stage’ operated as a site for the enactment of a series of gender-based debates.
Brooks has argued that: ‘stories cannot be told without making the body a prime vehicle of narrative significance’. This is certainly the case with the Corpus Christi cycles. The symbol of the Eucharist is one of the strongest signifiers to be found within the pageants. Christ's sacrifice and the remembrance of his crucifixion, through the ritualised tasting of his body and blood, are central to the message of the cycle dramas.
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- Gender and Medieval Drama , pp. 71 - 88Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2006