ABSTRACT Through a close examination of the fifteenth-century morality play, Mankind, this article argues that scholarship should expand its current theoretical understandings of medieval penance. Mankind is a dramatization of and reflection on the three stages of sacramental penance (contrition, confession, and satisfaction) and its focus is decidedly gendered: it is a play performed by, for, and about men. Mankind shows how the penitential process enables men to achieve redemption through acknowledging not only their own individual failings but also the failure of contemporary definitions of masculinity. Drawing on psychoanalytic theory, this article demonstrates that Mankind invites its audience to recognize sin and penance as a compulsive cycle; the play asks its audience to experience a sort of pleasure in recognizing that every Christian man participates in an endless cycle of sin and penance, a cycle that necessarily undermines a masculine identity based on self-sufficiency. Through its scatological and obscene humor — specifically the play’s association of the anus with both materiality and sin — Mankind presents penance as an opportunity for men to recognize and celebrate the contingent and socially dependent nature of masculine identity.

中文翻译：

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人类与苦行的男性愉悦

摘要通过仔细研究15世纪的道德戏剧《人类》，本文认为，学术研究应扩大其对中世纪苦行的当前理论理解。人类是对圣餐pen悔，认罪和满足三个阶段的戏剧化和反思，它的重点肯定是性别：这是由男人，为男人和关于男人表演的戏剧。人类展示了the悔的过程如何使人们不仅承认自己的个人失败，而且承认当代男性气概的失败，从而实现救赎。本文利用心理分析理论证明，人类邀请其听众认识到罪恶和苦修是一种强迫性循环。该剧要求观众认识到每个基督徒男人都参与无尽的罪恶和pen悔循环，这种循环必然破坏基于自给自足的男性身份，使观众体验一种愉悦。通过其粪便的，卑鄙的幽默，尤其是戏剧将肛门与物质性和犯罪性结合在一起，人类将ance悔作为男人认识和庆祝男性身份的偶发性和社会依赖性的机会。