The Medieval Theater of Cruelty: Rhetoric, Memory and Violence (review)

THE COMPAKATIST The book's strength, then, is also its weakness. The many (relatively short) contributions that complement, supplement, correct, contradict, or offer alternatives to one another offer a view ofa vital yet incoherent field that, moreover, seems incapable ofremaining within its self-set bounds. The study ofperspective, point of view, and focalization appears here to be a very inclusive one indeed. Unfortunately , it is also so all-encompassing because some ofits key distinctions—central narratological distinctions such as those between perceiving and reporting, or between story and discourse—ultimately cannot be maintained. Liedeke PlateUtrecht University JODY ENDERS. 7"Ae Medieval Theater ofCruelty: Rhetoric, Memory and Violence. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1999. 268 pp. This book by Jody Enders follows upon her acclaimed first book, Rhetoric and the Origins ofMedievalDrama, which won the MLA's Scaglione Prize. In this work, she addresses the presence of violence and cruelty on the medieval stage. She argues that the medieval discourse ofrhetoric was rife with a vocabulary ofviolence, but also that this discipline included many instances of both sublimated and physically-enacted violence. After noting the inherent theatricality ofrhetoric, she illustrates the rhetoricality of late medieval theater, and suggests that theater and rhetoric were intimately bound up in both violent discourse and violent praxis. In fact, she concludes by questioning the very distinction between the two, adopting an Austinian performative approach to argue that violence was inherent to theater and rhetoric, both ofwhich were forms ofperformance that served as vehicles of social control and repression. Enders also raises the larger question ofthe violence inherent to rhetoric and theater throughout Western history. The book's three chapters focus on three key constituents ofrhetoric—inventio , memoria, and actio. Enders begins by showing how the discourse describing inventio was replete with images ofthe process's violence. But more importantly, she also reveals the intimate connections between the discourse of inventio and the process ofjudicial "discovery" of"truth" through torture. She closes by examining how both types of"finding" subtly underline their own inadequacy as vehicles of truth. They ultimately reveal their own status as violent performances ofpower. The second chapter looks at the links between mnemonic techniques and physical violence which were common in medieval educational theory. The argument then expands to consider the stage as the site ofmimetic enactments oflearning and memoria, and also as a form of education itself. "Education" is seen as an essentially "spectacular" process—and as a classical instance of rhetorical persuasion. The final chapter examines the mimetic performance ofviolence itself—as opposed to presentations oftorture or education, inventio or memoria—on stage. She suggests that the more (or sometimes less!) sublimated violence oftheatrical and rhetorical performance served simultaneously to suppress the potential violence ofsocial resistance, and to disguise its own violent participation in this process, thus legitimating violent performativity as a supposed alternative to overt social violence. This book is essential for those interested in late medieval theater and medieval rhetoric. It is replete with examples from both sources, and offers many readings oflittle-known or under-appreciated medieval plays—both mystères and farces. It also makes a valuable contribution to understanding the larger social functions of Vol.26 (2002): 175 BOOK NOTES rhetoric and theater in medieval society, and to the general late-medieval theorization and representation ofviolence, social order, and their connections. In addition to work on medieval rhetoric and on theater, the book draws on theorists of the violence oflanguage such as Barthes and Derrida, on anthropologically-oriented work like that ofRené Girard, on medieval literary and social historians ofviolence like Peter Haidu, and on Baudrillard's analyses of the simulacra, among others. Enders also addresses at several points the gender issues raised by the rhetoric of violence, such as the differing views ofviolence and education for the sexes. To the extent that one might see room for improvement, it is at the margins of the discussion, so to speak. At various points, the larger questions ofviolence, social control, and hegemony are raised, but the range ofapproaches offered to address these issues is too limited to be fully effective. While the book does what it does very well, the largest questions it raises almost inherently require a...