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This work examines the relationship between iconoclasm and theatrical activity in England during the second half of the sixteenth century. It compellingly argues that theatrical activity and theological controversies were complexly intertwined, whereby drama informed cultural ideology as much as it was informed by it. Through a complex set of strategies, English playwrights worked through the arising controversies concerning imagery set in motion by the newly emergent culture of iconoclasm. In their reluctance to yield to iconoclastic pressures, playwrights aggressively negotiated the legitimacy of the presentation of residual Catholic spectacle on stage. Through an analysis of contemporary drama, this work reveals how playwrights managed to sustain the iconography of an older, distinctly Catholic stage despite the constraints of a reforming culture increasingly informed by iconoclastic tendencies. This book will appeal both to scholars and general readers interested in Renaissance literature, the English stage and theological change during the reformation.

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Dr. Dalia Ben-Tsur is a lecturer at The Interdisciplinary Centre in Israel. Her research interests are in both the fields of literature and education. Her research and publications focus on English literature of the Renaissance as well as higher education in regions afflicted by on-going conflict.

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