Night of the Living Bread: Unstable Signs in Chester's 'Antichrist'

Abstract

This essay contends that the title character of Chester’s ‘Antichrist’ play disrupts orthodox models of language and theology through his biblical parody and mock resurrections. By destabilizing language and bodies through Antichrist’s stage presence, the play speaks to a historical destabilization of sacred language and actions that arose during the play’s earliest performance period because of the Lollard heresy. These disturbances in turn force theatrical and historical audiences to interpret religious signs through complex hermeneutical frameworks, frameworks I argue that the Chester ‘Antichrist’ play itself constructs.