Day 4, a little bit more

So skipped Friday, since I was at the drs and then at meetings for the rest of the day.  I made progress on Thursday after I went home, though.  I skimmed through a few articles on Thursday.  The first two helped to pin down Margery's timeline - she's born around 1373, married around 1393, and leaves on pilgrimage in the fall of 1413.  The best options for her trip to York are 1402 (CC May 25) and 1413 (CC June 22).  It's most appealing to posit the later date, since it means that she has to have seen or encountered the CC plays the day before she leaves.  The arguments for this (based largely on Charity Scott Stokes' analysis) are that her husband agrees to the vow of chastity on the condition that she pay his debts before she goes on pilgrimage, that her father dies in October 1413, and that she leaves on pilgrimage that year.  There are ambiguities - the trip to York and the one to Bridlington (where he proposes the deal) might be seperate trips, and she also needs time to take her vow of chastity with the Bishop of Lincoln before she leaves.  It is perfectly reasonable to suppose that she goes to York, Bridlington, and Lincoln between June and October of 1413, but there is no way to know for certain, and that's a lot of travelling for one summer.

Glancing quickly at a couple of other articles, one stresses the state of widowhood and its growing cultural expectation of divine intercession (prays for husband), the other points out that anthologies excerpt Margery and Julian in attempts to increase the representation of female writers - instructors encounter "a desire (or mandate) to include more female voices... and an increasingly female readership in need of some context for the voices presented" (Peterson 418).  The latter article focuses on some specific contexts (regligious movements, ideologies of women and the body).

After all this I had a good talk with mom about how I might structure my discussion and came up with this:

1. Introduction - the need to include and explore the female, not just elite
2. Texts - reflect and shape conceptions of the urban woman
1. York Plays - Eve takes resp for actions; Noah's wife emphasizes marital equality and Noah acknowledges his mistake; Mary acts with authority throughout, but especially as a widow near her death; Mary Magdalene - as witness?
2. Margery - operates businesses (brewer, miller), negotiates chastity and finances with husband, demonstrates agency by defending herself, travelling, dictates text.  
3. Links - what teaching these together can inspire
1. Reception: Margery likely saw the York Plays the year she left on pilgrimage; while she demonstrates agency prior to seeing the plays, they reflect and reaffirm her attitudes towards her own subjectivity and her authority to negotiate within the family unit.  Margery becomes a model of reception, suggesting how female audience memebers might understand the York plays as afirmation of women's rights within a patriarchal dynamic and their reformation through Mary.
2. Motifs/themes: Both texts emphasize women as speakers of truth, even is weaker or flawed; the importance of chastity but also of social responsibility to the family unit (which trumps community); the dangers of worldly pride; and the value of mobility... likely more.  

Finally, it's important to keep the session's goal and title in mind: Lighting the Flame.  This is about inspiring instructors and, ultimately, students about drama.  My point is that the drama can communicate social/cultural realities for everyday citizens, the 'middle class' of medieval society, as opposed to the elite or the very poor.