Gower's Material World

Sponsoring Organization(s)

John Gower Society

Organizer Name

R. F. Yeager

Organizer Affiliation

Univ. of West Florida

Presider Name

R. F. Yeager

Paper Title 1

Brutus's City on the Thames: Gower's London as Material Context and Imaginative Construct

Presenter 1 Name

Sarah O'Brien

Presenter 1 Affiliation

Fordham Univ.

Paper Title 2

Materializing Gower's Worldly Instructions: Pierpont Morgan MS M.126 and the Science of Literary Education

Presenter 2 Name

Amanda Gerber

Presenter 2 Affiliation

Eastern New Mexico Univ.

Paper Title 3

Gower, Satire, and the Materials of Avarice

Presenter 3 Name

Roger A. Ladd

Presenter 3 Affiliation

Univ. of North Carolina-Pembroke

Start Date

12-5-2016 3:30 PM

Session Location

Bernhard 106

Description

Gower's Material World"

Sebastian Sobecki’s forthcoming Speculum essay establishes that Gower’s Trentham manuscript never left St. Mary Overeys where Gower lived, and it argues for the inclusion of Gower’s hand in the manuscript. This essay will have far-reaching ramifications for Gower studies precisely because it interrogates the material world of Gower’s texts, an approach many recent literary analyses have taken as well. Andrew Galloway’s essay, “Gower’s Kiste,” for example, explores how Gower’s acquisition of a brass pot and chest informs the ‘Tale of the Two Coffers’ in the Confessio Amantis. As Elliot Kendall states in Lordship and Literature: Gower and the Politics of the Great Household, “material culture [is] vital to the social imagination” affecting the production of Gower’s works, and one of the most exciting developments in Gower studies has been these kinds of investigations into the relationship between literary texts, the material culture found represented within those texts, and the material world surrounding the production of those texts. This panel seeks papers from scholars investigating issues such as 1) the role of material culture within his literary works (as Galloway has done, and on issues like the materiality of Nebuchadnezzar’s statue), 2) the material nature of those texts’ production (such as Sobecki’s essay and its inevitable responses), and 3) the material world of Gower studies more broadly conceived (such as investigations of the objects listed in his will: salt-cellars, spoons, chalices, beds, vestments, etc.). Given the recent revelatory work in this area, the panel will provide a timely opportunity for scholars to share current work on Gower’s material world and serve as incentive for others to consider material issues in their own scholarship.

RF Yeager

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May 12th, 3:30 PM

Gower's Material World

Bernhard 106

Gower's Material World"

Sebastian Sobecki’s forthcoming Speculum essay establishes that Gower’s Trentham manuscript never left St. Mary Overeys where Gower lived, and it argues for the inclusion of Gower’s hand in the manuscript. This essay will have far-reaching ramifications for Gower studies precisely because it interrogates the material world of Gower’s texts, an approach many recent literary analyses have taken as well. Andrew Galloway’s essay, “Gower’s Kiste,” for example, explores how Gower’s acquisition of a brass pot and chest informs the ‘Tale of the Two Coffers’ in the Confessio Amantis. As Elliot Kendall states in Lordship and Literature: Gower and the Politics of the Great Household, “material culture [is] vital to the social imagination” affecting the production of Gower’s works, and one of the most exciting developments in Gower studies has been these kinds of investigations into the relationship between literary texts, the material culture found represented within those texts, and the material world surrounding the production of those texts. This panel seeks papers from scholars investigating issues such as 1) the role of material culture within his literary works (as Galloway has done, and on issues like the materiality of Nebuchadnezzar’s statue), 2) the material nature of those texts’ production (such as Sobecki’s essay and its inevitable responses), and 3) the material world of Gower studies more broadly conceived (such as investigations of the objects listed in his will: salt-cellars, spoons, chalices, beds, vestments, etc.). Given the recent revelatory work in this area, the panel will provide a timely opportunity for scholars to share current work on Gower’s material world and serve as incentive for others to consider material issues in their own scholarship.

RF Yeager