This book defends the author's theory that the medieval morality play Mankind is a work of literary art whose central organizing principle is the metaphor of the game, which unites all parts of the play, including the scatological humor, into a well-constructed whole. The combination of techniques of classical rhetorical analysis and modern structural analysis based on the theories of Claude Levi-Strauss and Tzvetan Tartistry displays the literary from two different perspectives, thus yielding new insights into the themes, linguistic structure, and interpretation of Mankind.
