Synopses & Reviews
In Fragments and Assemblages, Arthur Bahr expands the ways in which we interpret medieval manuscripts, examining the formal characteristics of both physical manuscripts and literary works. Specifically, Bahr argues that manuscript compilations from fourteenth-century London reward interpretation as both assemblages and fragments: as meaningfully constructed objects whose forms and textual contents shed light on the cityandrsquo;s literary, social, and political cultures, but also as artifacts whose physical fragmentation invites forms of literary criticism that were unintended by their medieval makers. Such compilations are not simply repositories of data to be used for the reconstruction of the distant past; their physical forms reward literary and aesthetic analysis in their own right. The compilations analyzed reflect the full vibrancy of fourteenth-century Londonandrsquo;s literary cultures: the multilingual codices of Edwardian civil servant Andrew Horn and Ricardian poet John Gower, the famous Auchinleck manuscript of texts in Middle English, and Chaucerandrsquo;s Canterbury Tales. By reading these compilations as both formal shapes and historical occurrences, Bahr uncovers neglected literary histories specific to the time and place of their production. The book offers a less empiricist way of interpreting the relationship between textual and physical form that will be of interest to a wide range of literary critics and manuscript scholars.
Review
"A work of high scholarship that brings to bear a novel form of analysis to a medieval monastic illuminated text."
Review
"[The author] puts forth a convincing case for the presence of theater in monastic reading, thus challenging the boundaries between public performance and private reading . . . and between verbal literature and visual image-texts, as visible forms of communication within the late medieval Carthusian charterhouse."
Review
and#8220;At long lastand#8212;an in-depth study of the Carthusian Miscellany! Instead of mining the surface of this fascinating manuscript for the occasional visual nugget to illustrate late medieval devotional practices, Jessica Brantley digs deep to illuminate the manuscript itself, significantly extending previous work by art historians, Middle English editors, and students of fifteenth-century religion by focusing on its performative nature and highlighting its theatricality.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Jessica Brantley persuasively describes a prevalent medieval practice of performative private reading. Moving beyond previous theories of reception, she analyzes manuscript illustrations as action-seeking cues to the devout or meditative reader. Finding apparently solitary reading experience 'quickened' at every point by its relation to public and communal experience, she stages a vigorous challenge to simplified notions of individuality and community in the later middle ages.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;In the context of the study of this odd and oddly compelling manuscript Brantleyand#8217;s reading is interesting and provocative.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Jessica Brantleyand#8217;s Reading in the Wilderness is an impressive, thorough, and thoughtful analysis of one of the most important of all fifteenth-century English manuscripts.and#160; In addition to providing a much-needed discussion of a densely illustrated compendium, the book provides a good general discussion of Carthusian patronage of the arts and attitudes towards the visual arts, which has long represented a lacuna in the literature.and#8221;
Review
"Ranging widely from genre to metaphor and motif, from the layout of stanzas and rhyme braces to the structure of allegorical trees, [the author's] expertise as a literary critic is evident at every point. She is equally astute with images."
Review
"Brantley's loving and learned attention, lavished on this 'one small and roughly made book,' exemplifies the kind of careful, empathetic reading of a single medieval artifact that can open up an entire horizon of cultural understanding. I recommend it highly."
Review
"This is an impressive book that should be required reading for those working on late-medieval religious culture, Middle English devotional writing, early English drama and performance studies, and the relationship between images and texts. . . . Finally, Reading in the Wilderness is a beautiful book. With eight full color plates and over a hundred black and white images of the manuscript and analogues, it offers the reader visual as well as textual pleasure."
Review
and#8220;[Bahrand#8217;s] attractively written, often witty book, informed by a wide range of scholarship, elegantly demonstrates one way of using material form in the service of critical analysis.and#8221;
Review
andldquo;[E]ngaging and thoroughly enjoyable. . . . Highly recommended.andrdquo;
Review
and#8220;Bahrand#8217;s Fragments and Assemblages is the realization of a kind of literary codicology that has been long promised but slow to emerge. In this selective, elegant study of late medieval English literature, Bahr re-approaches several important texts and textual communities through the prism of manuscript research. The book weaves together codicological research with literary close readings and connects literary production with historical contexts to produce an exciting re-visioning of literate culture in fourteenth-century London. . . . Bahr cleverly posits critical practice itself as an assemblage, and constructs the readerly community, which includes authors, manuscript makers, readers and critics, as a kind of assemblage akin to the urban community of medieval London. He invites to rest of us to share in the and#8216;compilational gameand#8217; of reading manuscript culture in these expanded and fluid ways, and it is a challenge I hope many other readers will take up.and#8221;
Review
andldquo;In this remarkably erudite and elegantly argued book, Arthur Bahr makes the compelling case for the meaning of medieval literature in its manuscript environment. Building on much recent scholarship in the study of the handwritten book, Bahr shows how literary value often lies along the fissures of the fragment. Medieval English compilationsandmdash;whether they be the concatenations of the Auchinleck manuscript, or the various assemblies of Chaucerandrsquo;s
Canterbury Talesandmdash;are not as unified as they might seem. Bahrandrsquo;s powerful analyses of these and other texts as physical objects demonstrates, in his words, how andlsquo;the literary can be found, delighted in and nurturedandrsquo; at the intersection of andlsquo;codicological form and textual content.andrsquo;
Fragments and Assemblages makes a powerful case for medieval literary study grounded equally in the archive and the imagination.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;
Fragments and Assemblages makes the striking claim that the standard treatment of Chaucer and other Ricardian poets, as figures who broke with the past in order to inaugurate a new kind of literary writing in English, must be revised in light of textual evidence. Arthur Bahr works carefully with fourteenth-century manuscripts in order to show us connections from Andrew Horn to the Auchinleck manuscript to Chaucer and Gower; he thereby stitches together the divided fourteenth century and demonstrates that literary production during the period was an ongoing and continuous project. At the same time, he also makes an important methodological statement about the significance of formalism to the study of manuscripts and to historical work. All of the texts he discusses are compilations, which he categorizes as either andlsquo;fragmentsandrsquo; or andlsquo;assemblagesandrsquo; in order to suggest that there is a necessary dialectic between them: the works he describes all betray evidence of being assembled for a larger purpose, but they simultaneously exist as fragments, both physically and in the abstract. This double approach enables Bahr to construct an original and creative new account of fourteenth-century writing, one with which all scholars of late medieval literature will want to engage.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Arthur Bahrandrsquo;s scholarship is deeply learned and technically skillful, as he invests codicology with the larger promises of formalism. But have no fear: Bahrandrsquo;s prose sparkles with intellectual delicacy, energy, and pleasure. This is scholarship voiced in an especially agreeable and distinctive way. I enjoyed reading
Fragments and Assemblages enormously.andrdquo;
Synopsis
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 manuscriptand#8217;s texts and illustrations to examine connections between reading and performance within the solitary monkand#8217;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.
About the Author
Jessica Brantley is associate professor of English at Yale University.and#160;and#160;and#160;
Table of Contents
List of Illustrationsand#160;
List of Abbreviationsand#160;
Acknowledgmentsand#160;
1. Introduction: The Performance of Reading
2. and#8220;Silence Visibleand#8221;: Carthusian Devotional Reading and Meditative Practiceand#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Backgrounds: The Carthusian Orderand#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Carthusians and Booksand#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Carthusians and Artand#160;
3. The Shapes of Eremitic Reading in the Desert of Religionand#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; The Desert of Religion as Imagetextand#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; and#8220;Als Wildernes Is Wroght and#254;is Bokeand#8221;: Formats of Monastic Booksand#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Reading Spiritual Community in the Wildernessand#160;
4. Lyric Imaginings and Painted Prayersand#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; The Eremitic Lyric and Richard Rolleand#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Imagining the Carthusian Readerand#160;
5. Liturgical Pageantry in Private Spacesand#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Reading the Liturgy: Two Modelsand#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Performing the Holy Nameand#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Performing the Canonical Hoursand#160;
and#160;and#160; and#160;Performing the Seven Sacramentsand#160;
6. Envisioning Dialogue in Performanceand#160;
and#160;and#160; and#160;and#8220;In Maner of a Dyaloge It Wenteand#8221;and#160;
and#160;and#160; and#160;Allegorical Dialogues: The Pylgremage of the Sowleand#160;
and#160;and#160; and#160;Mystical Dialogues: The Tretyse of and#254;e Seven Poyntes of Trewe Love andand#160;Everlastynge Wisdameand#160;
7. Dramatizing the Cell: Theatrical Performances in Monastic Readingand#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Dramatic Texts, Lyric Voices, and Private Readersand#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Theatrical Reading in Additional 3749and#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Monastic Closet Dramaand#160;
8. Conclusion: Reading Performancesand#160;
Appendix: Contents of British Library MS Additional 3749and#160;
Notesand#160;and#160;
Bibliographyand#160;
Index