Reading in the Wilderness
Private Devotion and Public Performance in Late Medieval England
9780226071329
9780226071343
Reading in the Wilderness
Private Devotion and Public Performance in Late Medieval England
Just as twenty-first-century technologies like blogs and wikis have transformed the once private act of reading into a public enterprise, devotional reading experiences in the Middle Ages were dependent upon an oscillation between the solitary and the communal. In Reading in the Wilderness, Jessica Brantley uses tools from both literary criticism and art history to illuminate Additional MS 37049, an illustrated Carthusian miscellany housed in the British Library. This revealing artifact, Brantley argues, closes the gap between group spectatorship and private study in late medieval England.
Drawing on the work of W. J. T. Mitchell, Michael Camille, and others working at the image-text crossroads, Reading in the Wilderness addresses the manuscript’s texts and illustrations to examine connections between reading and performance within the solitary monk’s cell and also outside. Brantley reimagines the medieval codex as a site where the meanings of images and words are performed, both publicly and privately, in the act of reading.
Drawing on the work of W. J. T. Mitchell, Michael Camille, and others working at the image-text crossroads, Reading in the Wilderness addresses the manuscript’s texts and illustrations to examine connections between reading and performance within the solitary monk’s cell and also outside. Brantley reimagines the medieval codex as a site where the meanings of images and words are performed, both publicly and privately, in the act of reading.
344 pages | 8 color plates, 108 halftones, 1 line drawing | 6 x 9 | © 2007
Art: British Art
History: European History
Literature and Literary Criticism: British and Irish Literature
Reviews
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
List of Abbreviations
Acknowledgments
1. Introduction: The Performance of Reading
2. “Silence Visible”: Carthusian Devotional Reading and Meditative Practice
Backgrounds: The Carthusian Order
Carthusians and Books
Carthusians and Art
3. The Shapes of Eremitic Reading in the Desert of Religion
The Desert of Religion as Imagetext
“Als Wildernes Is Wroght þis Boke”: Formats of Monastic Books
Reading Spiritual Community in the Wilderness
4. Lyric Imaginings and Painted Prayers
The Eremitic Lyric and Richard Rolle
Imagining the Carthusian Reader
5. Liturgical Pageantry in Private Spaces
Reading the Liturgy: Two Models
Performing the Holy Name
Performing the Canonical Hours
Performing the Seven Sacraments
6. Envisioning Dialogue in Performance
“In Maner of a Dyaloge It Wente”
Allegorical Dialogues: The Pylgremage of the Sowle
Mystical Dialogues: The Tretyse of þe Seven Poyntes of Trewe Love and Everlastynge Wisdame
7. Dramatizing the Cell: Theatrical Performances in Monastic Reading
Dramatic Texts, Lyric Voices, and Private Readers
Theatrical Reading in Additional 3749
Monastic Closet Drama
8. Conclusion: Reading Performances
List of Abbreviations
Acknowledgments
1. Introduction: The Performance of Reading
2. “Silence Visible”: Carthusian Devotional Reading and Meditative Practice
Backgrounds: The Carthusian Order
Carthusians and Books
Carthusians and Art
3. The Shapes of Eremitic Reading in the Desert of Religion
The Desert of Religion as Imagetext
“Als Wildernes Is Wroght þis Boke”: Formats of Monastic Books
Reading Spiritual Community in the Wilderness
4. Lyric Imaginings and Painted Prayers
The Eremitic Lyric and Richard Rolle
Imagining the Carthusian Reader
5. Liturgical Pageantry in Private Spaces
Reading the Liturgy: Two Models
Performing the Holy Name
Performing the Canonical Hours
Performing the Seven Sacraments
6. Envisioning Dialogue in Performance
“In Maner of a Dyaloge It Wente”
Allegorical Dialogues: The Pylgremage of the Sowle
Mystical Dialogues: The Tretyse of þe Seven Poyntes of Trewe Love and Everlastynge Wisdame
7. Dramatizing the Cell: Theatrical Performances in Monastic Reading
Dramatic Texts, Lyric Voices, and Private Readers
Theatrical Reading in Additional 3749
Monastic Closet Drama
8. Conclusion: Reading Performances
Appendix: Contents of British Library MS Additional 3749
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Awards
Conference on Christianity and Literature/MLA: CCL Book-of-the-Year Award
Won
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