Mnich jako performer
The Monk as a Performer

Summary/Abstract: The history of English literature starts in the second half of the seventh century with a performance by a simple and illiterate shepherd, mentioned only by a single author. No archaeological evidence or any other texts confirm the shepherd’s existence. Quite possibly he could be a figment of the imagination of a learned author. Nonetheless, the story about a miraculous transformation of a shepherd into a singer, read and commented, contains a cohesive and radical description of a revolution in the art of the performer. Many of its motifs returned in the praxis of later artists of the theatre, not merely mediaeval. The shepherd who due to this wondrous event turned into a singer did not realise that he had become an artist. This is the way in which the Christian art of the performance came into being.

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