Introduction to proceedings of the Mummers Unconvention

This introductory paper provides a brief discussion of scholarship in the field to contextualize the papers offered at the symposium. The paper draws attention to the gap between the contemporary practice of mumming and the sustained emphasis of theoretical writing on pushing the meaning of mumming into the past. Two quite separate sets of views about contemporary mumming performances are introduced, on the one hand ideas of perpetuity, tradition and ritual, and on the other hand innovation, invention, and creativity.