HIGH POINT, N.C., Nov. 15, 2011 – Dr. Jim Casey, assistant professor of English at High Point University, recently published a chapter, titled “Honest Payneful Pastymes: Pain, Play, and Pedagogy in Early Modern England” for Ashgate’s “Performing Pedagogy in Early Modern England,” edited by Kathryn M. Moncrief and Kathryn R. McPherson.
Casey’s essay considers the way young men were prepared for war – through games and sports – as a part of their formal academic education in Elizabethan England. The chapter discusses how certain types of education were separated according to gender: warlike activity was portrayed as masculine and peace and idleness were associated with effeminacy. Manhood was “proven” during the period only through exposing the male body to tremendous potential harm, as seen in plays such as Shakespeare’s “Coriolanus” and “Macbeth.” Young men were prepared, physically and mentally, for the rigors of war through the “honest payneful pastimes” of youthful sport and training. Ultimately, boys would graduate into manhood when they entered into the arena of masculine violence. The danger, Casey explains, is that once they learn to fight like men, they may soon learn to die “like a man,” as the character Young Siward does in “Macbeth.”
“The issue of gender and the roles assigned to men and women is central to most literary texts, even when it’s not obvious,” Casey observes. “In my classes, I try to help my students see these gender expectations so they can understand how culture and society impose similar expectations on them. If young men understand the expectation for them to engage in masculine violence, for example, then perhaps they can break that cycle of violence. But as long as they see fighting as manly and not fighting as unmanly, then war and violence will persist.”
Casey has taught numerous courses on Shakespeare and has published on such diverse topics as fantasy, early modern poetry, textual theory, performance theory, postmodern theory, comics, masculinity, Shakespeare, Chaucer and more. His scholarly essays have appeared in journals such as “The Chaucer Review,” the “Early English Studies Journal,” “ImageTexT,” and in collections published by Routledge, McFarland, Cambridge University, Ashgate, Continuum and Cambridge Scholars.
At High Point University, every student receives an extraordinary education in an inspiring environment with caring people.℠ HPU, located in the Piedmont Triad region of North Carolina, is a liberal arts institution with over 4,200 undergraduate and graduate students from 51 countries and 46 states at campuses in High Point and Winston-Salem. It is ranked by US News and World Report at No. 3 among Regional Colleges in the South. Forbes.com ranks HPU in the top 7 percent among “America’s Best Colleges.” Parade Magazine lists HPU in the top 25 private schools in the nation. HPU was selected in the 2010-2011 list of “Colleges of Distinction,” as well as one of the top green schools in the country by the Sierra Club. The university offers 50 undergraduate majors, 43 undergraduate minors and 10 graduate degree programs. It is accredited by the Commission of Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, and is a member of the NCAA, Division I and the Big South Conference. Visit High Point University on the Web at highpoint.edu.
# # #
Pam Haynes
Communication Specialist
336-841-9055
[email protected]