Murder by Accident

Murder by Accident Medieval Theater, Modern Media, Critical Intentions

by Jody Enders

University of Chicago Press, 2009
Cloth: 978-0-226-20783-4 | Electronic: 978-0-226-20785-8
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226207858.001.0001

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ABOUT THIS BOOKAUTHOR BIOGRAPHYREVIEWSTABLE OF CONTENTS

ABOUT THIS BOOK

Over fifty years ago, it became unfashionable—even forbidden—for students of literature to talk about an author’s intentions for a given work. In Murder by Accident, Jody Enders boldly resurrects the long-disgraced concept of intentionality, especially as it relates to the theater.

Drawing on four fascinating medieval events in which a theatrical performance precipitated deadly consequences, Enders contends that the marginalization of intention in critical discourse is a mirror for the marginalization—and misunderstanding—of theater. Murder by Accident revisits the legal, moral, ethical, and aesthetic limits of the living arts of the past, pairing them with examples from the present, whether they be reality television, snuff films, the “accidental” live broadcast of a suicide on a Los Angeles freeway, or an actor who jokingly fired a stage revolver at his temple, causing his eventual death. This book will force scholars and students to rethink their assumptions about theory, intention, and performance, both past and present.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Jody Enders is professor of French and theater at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is the author of three books, including Death by Drama and Other Medieval Urban Legends, also published by the University of Chicago Press.

REVIEWS

“Jody Enders’ Murder by Accident offers an extraordinary amalgam of historical work and contemporary theory. We have here, as in her earlier work, richly detailed evocations of the social world of medieval spectacle. But we also have the theoretical and ethical concerns that her historical readings raise brought front and center. This book engages issues critical to anyone interested in art or in accountability (legal and moral)—that is, all of us.”

— Julie Stone Peters, Harvard University

“Enders is a remarkable scholar who uses the intellectual freedoms accorded to theater historians to the fullest. Not constrained by the limitations of historians or literary scholars, she moves easily between fact and fiction, medieval and modern. But what will always delight readers of Enders's work is the sheer pleasure of her style, her insights, and her asides.”

— Barbara Hanawalt, Ohio State University

“Once again Jody Enders has given us a brilliantly new perspective on the premodern dramatic tradition. In its graceful recovery of intention as the very ground of theatrical knowledge, Murder by Accident represents a signal contribution to some of the most pressing questions in the humanities today.”

— Bruce Holsinger, University of Virginia

"This work fully embraces the old and the new and in so doing suggests . . . that we are not as far removed from medieval France as we think. . . . Moving fluidly from medieval texts to modern representations, the author forces us to consider the absolute impassivity of the audience, where the spectacle of reality television and the evening news replay versions of medieval stage deaths."

— Choice

Acknowledgments

List of Abbreviations

Mise en Scène

Introduction Doing Theater Justice - Jody Enders
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226207858.003.0001
[theater, intentionality, theatrical institutions, drama, violence, ethics, consequences of action, literature movement, intentional fallacy, performativity]
This introductory chapter discusses the contents of this volume which is about the relation between the theater and the concept of intentionality. This book explores the intersection of theatrical and legal institutions and the meaning of that intersection to drama, violence, ethics and the consequences of action. It offers an interdisciplinary inquiry into several interrelated phenomena: the medieval theater, the modern media, the ethical problems inherent in spectacles of real violence, theater phenomenology, performativity, reception theory, the law and literature movement and intentional fallacy. (pages 1 - 26)
This chapter is available at:
https://academic.oup.com/chica...

PART I - Back to the Medieval Future

Behind the Seen: All Hell Breaks Loose - Jody Enders
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226207858.003.0002
[Guillaume Langlois, accidental death, cannon-fire, Jehan Hemont, stagehand, theater, liability, intentionality, responsibility, morality]
This chapter discusses the case of stagehand Guillaume Langlois who in March 1830 was obliged to account for his role in the accidental death by cannon-fire of his friend and colleague Jehan Hemont. It discusses Langlois' recollection of the events and King Charles' decision to absolve him of all criminal wrongdoing in the fatal accident that had caused the death of his friend Jehan. This chapter explains that this case raised serious legal questions about liability, responsibility and morality at the theater and it is also relevant to the four types of intentionality, which include actual, achieved, declared, and perceived intentions. (pages 29 - 46)
This chapter is available at:
https://academic.oup.com/chica...

The Final Run-Through - Jody Enders
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226207858.003.0003
[Perrin Le Roux, accidental death, Fremin Severin, play rehearsal, Miracle of Théophile, special effects, accidental impersonation, intentionality]
This chapter discusses the case of Perrin Le Roux, a stagehand who was accidentally killed by Fremin Severin during a rehearsal of the play Miracle of Théophile in June 1384. This is similar to the case of Guillaume Langlois in terms of special effects gone awry and the king's absolution. This chapter suggests that Severin's case not only provided insights into the nature of both work performance and legal work product, it also justifies the assertion that there is no such thing as accidental impersonation. It also argues that this case concept of the rehearsal makes sense only in light of intentionality. (pages 47 - 66)
This chapter is available at:
https://academic.oup.com/chica...

Fear of Imminence and Virtual Ethics: Staging Rape in the Middle Ages - Jody Enders
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226207858.003.0004
[fear of imminence, virtual ethics, rape, Middle Ages, theater, gang-rape, actor, intentions]
This chapter analyzes the issues of fear of imminence and virtual ethics in relation to two incidents of rape in the Middle Ages connected to the theater. These are the 1395 gang-rape of a woman by a group of men who spent the night on the scaffolding erected for the following day's theatrical production and the 1485 case of an actor who allegedly forced himself sexually upon his wife after returning home from his performance as a devil. This chapter suggests that these cases highlight the difficulties of agents' declarations of their intentions. (pages 67 - 88)
This chapter is available at:
https://academic.oup.com/chica...

Killing Himself by Accident: Of Broken Frames, Mimetic Blindness, and a Dance of Death - Jody Enders
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226207858.003.0005
[Henry D'Anoux, accidental death, dancing, theatrical permittivity, intentional fallacy, acrobatics]
This chapter discusses the case of Henry D'Anoux who fell on his knife while dancing and accidentally killed himself during a wedding reception in October 1504. It explains that D'Anoux has been known to perform acrobatics, somersaults, tumbling and mime with a knife dangling in his buttocks. The analysis of this case provides a new understanding of theatrical performativity which in turn facilitates a critical reassessment of the concept of intentional fallacy. (pages 89 - 108)
This chapter is available at:
https://academic.oup.com/chica...

Entr̓Acte: This Fallacy Which Is Not One - Jody Enders
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226207858.003.0006
[intentional fallacy, accidental deaths, theater, intentionality, logic, morality]
This chapter revaluates the concept of intentional fallacy in relation to the accidental deaths related to the theater discussed in the first part of this volume. It suggests that there is no intentional fallacy when it comes to the theater by looking to the critical (mis)fortunes of the intentional fallacy itself. This chapter also argues that the text-bound dismissal of intentionality reveals an almost agentless quality that is characterized by three fallacies of logic and morality alike. (pages 109 - 120)
This chapter is available at:
https://academic.oup.com/chica...

PART II The Theater and Its Trouble

The Theatrical Contract - Jody Enders
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226207858.003.0007
[social contact, theatrical contact, theater, achieved intentions, actual intentions, reception of intentions, Erving Goffman, social involvement, theatrical experience, dramatic performance]
This chapter examines the issues of social contact in the theater or theatrical contact. It analyzes the six discrete cases that make up the experience of theater, including achieved intentions, actual intentions and reception of intentions. This chapter discusses Erving Goffman's signature definition of social involvement and argues that there is nothing unhealthily juridical about the mutual consideration that defines the theater. It also suggests that the theatrical experience allows the spectators to make moral, ethical, legal and artistic sense of a dramatic performance. (pages 123 - 142)
This chapter is available at:
https://academic.oup.com/chica...

In Flagrante Theatro - Jody Enders
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226207858.003.0008
[intention, stage, theater, Erving Goffman, social obligations, adherence, transgression, murder, theatrical contract]
This chapter analyzes a series of real and hypothetical scenarios that illustrate the virtually infinite roles of intention on the stage. It examines Erving Goffman's theory about social obligations, adherence and transgression from the point of view of the theater collective. This chapter explores what the impossible murder by accident might look like on stage and argues that a critical obsession with breaking frame constitutes an obsession with breaking the theatrical contract. (pages 143 - 162)
This chapter is available at:
https://academic.oup.com/chica...

Theater Nullification - Jody Enders
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226207858.003.0009
[theatrical contract, theater audience, Erving Goffman, theater nullification, intentions]
This chapter analyzes various instances in which audience members themselves appear to or actually break the theatrical contract. It examines Erving Goffman's theory about theatrical contract and investigates whether there really is such a thing as theater nullification. This chapter suggests that the spectators have the right to reject the rules of the theatrical game and argues that the responses of theater audiences and their action or inaction depend not only upon their own intentions but on their perceptions of what others intend for them. (pages 163 - 184)
This chapter is available at:
https://academic.oup.com/chica...

Talk-Back Black Box and Idiot Box - Jody Enders
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226207858.003.0010
[live media, intention, television broadcasting, O.J. Simpson Bronco chase, Kevorkian-assisted suicide, Thomas Youk, theater]
This chapter focuses on the dire consequences of ignoring intention in live media as well as in literary theory. It comments on the television broadcasting of events such as O. J. Simpson Bronco chase and the Kevorkian-assisted suicide of Thomas Youk as part of an effort to encourage continued debate about the subject of intention. This chapter argues that the concept of intention is important not only in theory but in practice: the practice of theater and the practice of life. (pages 185 - 196)
This chapter is available at:
https://academic.oup.com/chica...

Appendix: Original Documents in French and Latin

Notes

Works Cited

Index