Dr Charlotte Steenbrugge
School of English
Lecturer in Medieval Literature
+44 114 222 8462
Full contact details
School of English
Jessop West
1 Upper Hanover Street
Sheffield
S3 7RA
- Profile
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I joined the School of English as Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow in October 2015, starting a project entitled Sceptical Readings of Medieval English Literature. I was previously a Marie Curie Research Fellow at the Universities of Bristol and Toronto, working on the relationship between medieval English drama and sermons.
While at Toronto I was actively involved with PLS and directed the Middle Dutch play Lanseloet van Denemerken. Before going to Canada, I lectured at Bangor University, New College, Oxford, and the University of Southampton. I completed my doctorate at the University of Cambridge in 2009 and my thesis was published as a monograph, Staging Vice: A Study of Dramatic Traditions in Medieval and Sixteenth-Century England and the Low Countries, by Brill/Rodopi in 2014.
- Research interests
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My main research interest is medieval English drama, but I have done research on early modern theatre, medieval and sixteenth-century Dutch and French drama, and non-dramatic medieval literature. For my current project I aim to show, using historical evidence of religious scepticism in the Middle Ages, that doubts and incredulity have left significant traces in medieval texts, and that to ignore them would be to misconstrue and misunderstand these texts and their society.
This study will therefore open up a new avenue of research into well-known medieval texts, transforming not only how we read these texts, but even how we view the Middle Ages.
My previous research project addressed the interrelation between sermons and vernacular drama in late medieval England from a variety of angles in order to provide a thorough, innovative, and comprehensive study.
I investigated how sermons and plays were used as media for public learning, how they combine this didactic aim with literary exigencies, and how the plays, in particular, acquired and reflected a position of authority and whether this brought them in conflict with sermons, the official channel of ecclesiastical instruction. Contrary to widespread assumptions, I argue that drama developed and flourished independent of sermon influence and had considerably different didactic aims to sermons.
My PhD dissertation assessed the importance of negative characters, and especially of the Vice and the sinnekens, for our understanding of medieval and sixteenth-century English and Dutch drama by charting diachronic developments and through synchronic comparisons. The analysis of the functions, as well as theatrical and meta-theatrical aspects of these characters, reveals how these plays were conditioned by their literary and social setting.
It sheds light on the subtly divergent appreciation of the concept of drama in these two regions and on their different use of drama as a didactic tool. In a wider perspective, I also investigated how the plays and their negative characters reflect the changes in the intellectual and religious climate of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
- Publications
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Books
- Drama and Sermon in Late Medieval England. Medieval Institute Publications.
- Drama and Sermon in Late Medieval England: Performance, Authority, Devotion. Medieval Institute Publications. View this article in WRRO
- Staging Vice. Brill | Rodopi.
- Staging Vice: A Study of Dramatic Traditions in Medieval and Sixteenth-Century England and the Low Countries. Brill/Rodopi.
Edited books
- Cultures of Compunction in the Medieval World. Bloomsbury.
- Cultures of Compunction in the Medieval World..
- Research on Medieval and Renaissance Drama: Love and Romance in Early Drama..
Journal articles
- Elsa Strietman and Peter Happé (edited and translated), The First and Seventh Joys of Our Lady: Bilingual Texts of Two Dutch Biblical Plays. Notes and Queries, 65(4), 574-574.
- Philip Butterworth and Katie Normington, eds. Medieval Theatre Performance: Actors, Dancers, Automata and their Audiences. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2017. Pp. 296. $99 (cloth).. Journal of British Studies, 57(3), 600-601.
- A Quantitative and Qualitative Assessment of Audience Responses. European Medieval Drama, 21, 67-83. View this article in WRRO
- ‘I Speke so Miche to Ȝow’: Authority, Didacticism, and Audience Address in Middle English Sermons and Morality Plays. Medieval English Theatre, 38, 84-99. View this article in WRRO
- Introduction. Research on Medieval and Renaissance Drama, 54, 1-1.
- Presenters in N-Town: ‘We asygne it to ȝoure good deliberacion’. European Medieval Drama, 16, 53-67. View this article in WRRO
- Books of Accounts in Everyman and Elckerlijc. Medieval English Theatre, 33, 19-44.
- Arjan van Dixhoorn, Lustige geesten: Rederijkers in de Noordelijke Nederlanden (1480–1650). European Medieval Drama, 14, 161-164.
- Anne-Laure Van Bruaene, Om beters wille: Rederijkerskamers en de stedelijke cultuur in de Zuidelijke Nederlanden (1400–1650). European Medieval Drama, 13, 227-230.
- 'O, yowr louely wordys': Latin and Latinate Diction in Mankind. Medieval English Theatre, 31, 28-56.
- Jan Smeeken: Sinnekens and Devils. European Medieval Drama, 12, 49-66.
- Censorship and Gendered Speech in Sixteenth-Century Bruges: The Case of Cornelis Everaert. Medieval English Theatre.
- The Functions of the English Vice and Dutch Sinnekens: A Comparison. Early Theatre, 13(2).
- A BIBLICAL STORY FOR TWO STAGES: ABRAHAM AND ISAAC IN FIFTEENTH-CENTURY FLORENCE AND YORK. European Medieval Drama. View this article in WRRO
Chapters
- Medieval English Drama and Performance, The Routledge Companion to Medieval English Literature (pp. 345-355). Routledge
- ‘Playing for Emotion: Middle English Abraham and Isaac Plays’ In Flannery M (Ed.), Emotions and Medieval Textual Media (pp. 215-237). Turnhout: Brepols.
- Morality Plays and the Aftermath of Arundel’s Constitutions In King PM (Ed.), The Routledge Research Companion to Early Drama and Performance Routledge View this article in WRRO
- 6 Preaching Penance on the Stage in Late Medieval England: The Case of John the Baptist, Staging Scripture (pp. 149-165). Brill | Rodopi
- Preaching penance on the stage in late medieval England: The case of John the Baptist, Staging Scripture: Biblical Drama, 1350-1600 (pp. 149-165).
- 6 Preaching Penance on the Stage in Late Medieval England: The Case of John the Baptist, Staging Scripture (pp. 149-165). Brill | Rodopi View this article in WRRO
- Time and Authority in Chaucer’s Parliament of Fowls In Carney C & McCormack F (Ed.), Chaucer’s Poetry: Words, authority
and ethics (pp. 121-133).
- ‘Haro! Haro! Sus, dyablerie’: The Theatricality of Devils in Temptation Sequences, Les Mystères (pp. 119-145). BRILL
Book reviews
- . The Modern Language Review, 108(4), 1331-1331.
- DOUGLAS BRUSTER and ERIC RASMUSSEN (eds), Everyman and Mankind.. Notes and Queries, 60(1), 120-121.
- Medieval English Theatre 44 (2022).
Conference proceedings papers
- Master Brundyche of Brabant and Fifteenth-Century Anti-Flemish Sentiment. The History of Anglo-Dutch Relations; Proceedings of the British Academy
- Drama and Sermon in Late Medieval England. Medieval Institute Publications.
- Research group
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I welcome PhD applicants who wish to undertake research in all areas of medieval literature, but particularly medieval drama. I am currently supervising PhD students working on Le Roman des Sept Sages and the Manieres de langage.
- Teaching activities
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I mainly teach on medieval literature and language, including:
- ELL118 Early Englishes
- ELL225 Exiles and Monsters: An Introduction to Old English
- LIT277 Chaucer
I also supervise undergraduate dissertations on medieval and non-medieval topics.
At MA level, I convene and/or teach on various modules, including:
- EGH602 Research Methods in English Studies
- Professional activities and memberships
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Director, The Farce of the Fisherman, Nicosia Medieval Festival (Nicosia, 2018), DINA (Sheffield, 2018)
Director, The Northampton Abraham and Isaac, Drama Studio (Sheffield, 2016)
Director, Rules of Love (Lancelot of Denmark), Poculi Ludique Societas (Toronto, 2014)
Assistant Director, A Medieval Christmas: Such Splendid Sight Was Never Seen, Poculi Ludique Societas (Toronto, 2013)