Objects and anxiety in late medieval English writing
Date
2014
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
In this study I demonstrate that medieval goods were active and often animated participants in the daily lives of medieval individuals. My project demonstrates how, rather than merely giving voice to dead objects, these lively "things" speak about the emotional, sensual, and experiential lives of late medieval men and women. By bringing together a group of seemingly disparate goods--Books of Hours, stone idols and invisible flowers, clothing, and skull cups--I argue that each object provides a spectrum of possible readings for users, who simultaneously interpreted objects as essential to a spiritual and communal existence, while also fearing that goods might inhibit the soul's relationship with the divine. All matter was, in some way, linked with creation and the divine, and as a result objects inherently possessed degrees of agency that might affect the human user. ☐ Chapter One considers how Books of Hours combine animal, plant, and stone matter and join them with prayers and illuminated images to instruct women in proper touching in this life and the next. In Chapter Two I consider worldly and mystical matter in Chaucer's "Second Nun's Tale" to demonstrate how looking at and touching manmade objects can ultimately limit knowledge of the divine. Though Chaucer provides an exemplum in the form of St. Cecile, who requires no contact with goods to realize her destiny of becoming an early Christian martyr, he ultimately concludes that, for less saintly individuals, it is impossible to ignore the senses, and particularly vision, when forming belief. Chapters Three and Four discuss Margery Kempe's worldly and religious attire. I argue that Margery's clothes and tears become a form of livery that reinforces her relationship with the Heavenly household. As a result, her text itself is actually a narrative of cloth, in which she employs a sartorial vocabulary to understand her transition from mother to mystic. In Chapter Five, I focus on the tale of "Albinus and Rosemund" in John Gower's Confessio Amantis and consider how the substance or matter of an object has inherent power, even if it cannot be perceived immediately though senses. In that tale, the central object, a golden and bejeweled cup that was crafted from a human skull, controls the destiny of all the characters.
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Keywords
Books of hours, Chaucer, Geoffrey, Gower, John, Kempe, Margery, Material culture, Medieval