READING IN THE WILDERNESS by Jessica Brantley ( 9780226071329 )

Item Details

Title:

READING IN THE WILDERNESS
PRIVATE DEVOTION AND PUBLIC PERFORMANCE IN LATE MEDIEVAL ENGLAND

By:

Format:

Hardback

List price:	£50.00
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ISBN 10:

0226071324

ISBN 13:

9780226071329

Publisher:

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS

Pub. date:

15 December, 2007

Pages:

344

Description:

Presents an argument that Additional MS 37049, a Carthusian miscellany housed in the British Library closes the gap between group spectatorship and private study in late medieval England. This book addresses the manuscript's texts and illustrations to examine connections between reading and performance within the solitary monk's cell and outside.

Synopsis:

Just as twenty-first-century technologies such as 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 outside. Brantley re-imagines the medieval codex as a site where the meanings of images and words are performed, both publicly and privately, in the act of reading.

Illustrations:

8 colour plates, 108 halftones, 1 line drawing

Publication:

Imprint:

University of Chicago Press

Returns:

Returnable

Some other items by this author:

MEDIEVAL ENGLISH MANUSCRIPTS AND LITERARY FORMS (HB)