Piers Plowman and the Rich

Sponsoring Organization(s)

International Piers Plowman Society

Organizer Name

Ian Cornelius

Organizer Affiliation

Yale Univ.

Presider Name

Fiona Somerset

Presider Affiliation

Univ. of Connecticut

Paper Title 1

"Ita [in]possibile diviti . . . ": Versions of Advice for the Rich in Piers Plowman

Presenter 1 Name

Sarah Wood

Presenter 1 Affiliation

St Hilda's College, Univ. of Oxford

Paper Title 2

Piers Plowman and the Mammon of Iniquity

Presenter 2 Name

Rosemary O'Neill

Presenter 2 Affiliation

Kenyon College

Paper Title 3

Rokele Economics

Presenter 3 Name

Andrew Galloway

Presenter 3 Affiliation

Cornell Univ.

Start Date

8-5-2014 1:30 PM

Session Location

Schneider 1360

Description

"Right so ye riche, ye robeth and fedeth / Hem that han as ye han." While the world has attended to the interests of the rich since the 2008 GFC, readers of Piers Plowman have devoted much more attention, understandably so, to its treatment of poverty and poor people, than to its locutionary acts of addressing and advising the rich. This session seeks to clarify Piers Plowman's thought on the problems of wealth, class, social order, and government. Papers are also invited to explore relations between these themes and the poem's patronage and material circulation. The session will be of interest to specialists on Piers Plowman and, more broadly, to scholars with interests in late medieval English literature, social history, and cultural studies.

Lawrence Warner