The Antrobus Soul-Caking Play

Description

M.A. study of the Antrobus soulcaking play, customarily performed at Hallowe'en and during the first two weeks of November each year. The study is presented against a background of earlier scholarly investigation which variously has suggested that the Mummers' play is a remnant of an ancient fertility ritual, a vestige of primitive sympathetic magic used to secure the fertility of the earth, flocks and community, and that English Mummers are in a direct line of descent from the primitive folk who enacted fertility rituals. The collector sees in this the unproductive search for the origin of the play, amidst which the contemporary meaning of the drama to the participants and the audience has been overlooked. In response, the collector's study assesses the role of the Mumming Play in the lives of the individuals taking part, and in the wider life of the community as a whole. Six chapters describe the area in which the soulcaking takes place, a history of the play, the Antrobus play itself (including the text and photographs of a performance), the structure of the play, the manner of the performance and the play as ritual.

Metadata

Identifier zjwb1lwl
IRN 409982
Class Mark LAVC/SRP/1/086
Level File
Type of Record Archives - ISAD(G)
Peristent Link http://prototype1.library.leeds.ac.uk/zjwb1lwl
Collection(s) Leeds Archive of Vernacular Culture
Category Archive
Parent Record Postgraduate Theses and Dissertations
Creator(s) Pattison, Susan
Date 1975
Size and Medium 63 unbound typed leaves; 6 b/w, 5 colour photographs. 1 original and 1 carbon copy.

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