MYSTERY PLAYS AND THEIR ORIGIN

Abstract

On the assumption that the appearance of new literary works and genres in the Middle Ages was conditioned first of all on their usage and function, the authoress tries to justify the thesis according to which the appearence of the liturgic drama, owing to the need to include the masses into religion to make it firm, was conditioned by aspirations to visualize liturgic texts and the need that readers, that is, the public are not in doubt about narrators (actors, priest authorities) or the autonomy of characters who are being presented. The liturgic dramas appeared as presentations, performings of texts in contrast to telling or narrating liturgic ceremonies.