Memory and Language in Medieval Literature
Moderator: Michelle
Bolduc
University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee
mbolduc@uwm.edu
Sing-a-long Memories in the Concluding Rosary Cycle of
Gautier de Coinci's Miracles de Nostre Dame
Gautier de Coinci tells us that he composed his
collection of miracle stories and devotional songs for the recreation and
relaxation of monks, nuns, and clerks. He ends his 36,000 line opus appropriately with a long cycle of
prayers that eases his listeners back into their devotions. This final
prayer cycle is anchored by a long piece that is rarely recognized as a
vernacular rosary (or Marian psalter). The rosary
is followed by a song that is composed completely of citations from the rosary
itself. In this paper I explore the rosary and its song, and how Gautier
uses lyrical citations to move his public toward the highly focused meditations
of true prayer.
While exploring these poems, I will meditate on the lyrical language of memory
that Gautier employs. Medieval arts of memory have been studied primarily
through practices of constructing images, but the literature is replete with
references to music, an area of new scholarly interest. This paper follows medieval arts of memory
into vernacular songs and prayers, examining how Gautier set spiritual reading
practices to trouvère tunes, and structured
meditations with the memorial tools of song.
Karen Duys
Sentenciae in the exempla of El Conde Lucanor
The structure of the exempla El Conde Lucanor (1335) by Don Juan Manuel has captured the attention of some scholars. The stories written by this powerful Castilian man show a frame structure typical of Arabic tales. At the end of each story, the writer’s alter ego closes the section with a sentenciae. Little has been said regarding the final verses or sentenciae chosen by Don Juan Manuel to close each exempla. In medieval times, sentenciae were believed to contain knowledge. Together with exempla, they were used as a preaching tool. In my presentation, I will argue that the sentenciae in El Conde Lucanor serve two main purposes. One is adding to the practicality of medieval exempla by providing the reader with a memory tool so one can remember the knowledge explained in each of the tales. The other purpose is a matter of power and control. Through the final sententia that summarizes the moral of the story, the writer has a last chance to control the reading. Driving the reading and serving as methods to remember, sententiae prove to be powerful tools for the didactic writer. However, the writer’s obsession for controlling the reader reveals his own anxieties towards the ideology he presents.
Ana Adams
Faltering Memory and the Representation of the
Inexpressible in the Paradiso
Memory plays a decisive role in
Dante's Commedia. Throughout the
entire poem, and more frequently in the Paradiso, Dante openly comments on the role of memory with
regard to his ability to produce an accurate textual rendition of his fantastic
journey in the afterlife. In the third cantica, direct references to what the pilgrim is or is not
able to retain about his alleged vision are often accompanied by the use of the
ineffability "topos," which declares the
poet's inability to adequately describe in words the supernatural quality of
his experience. But the faltering limitations of Dante's "memoria" are often acknowledged, only to be
immediately denied in the following terzina. Dante does not seem to follow a consistent thread
in his assessment of the limitations of memory. This narrative strategy, made
of contrasting statements, generates a dialectic which supersedes the mnemonic
limitations claimed by the poet, bringing to the foreground the inadequacy of
human language in its attempt to express the ineffable vision of paradise.
Hiding behind the alternating declarations regarding memory, this 'dialectic of
ineffability' reveals the truth essence of the opposition that characterizes
the textual construction of the Paradiso that between the supernatural quality of the
experience and the limited possibilities of human language to represent it.
Although Dante blames the weakness
of his memory, the successful completion of his poem has little to do with it,
depending mostly in his ability to find a successful strategy to overcome the
dynamic opposition that threatens his work, that between "res" and "figura,"
between vision and representation. Here the repeated use of the ineffability
"topos" becomes the pattern that best
represents Dante's effort to bring his words as close as possible to the "silenzio divino" which
ultimately constitutes the true essence of God.
Eduardo Fichera