Space-Time Continuum and Medieval Manuscripts

Sponsoring Organization(s)

Manuscript Technologies Forum Interest Group, The English Association

Organizer Name

Elaine M. Treharne

Organizer Affiliation

Stanford Univ.

Presider Name

Benjamin Albritton

Presider Affiliation

Stanford Univ.

Paper Title 1

Medieval Manuscripts and Microfiche: The Ethics of Residual Media

Presenter 1 Name

Matthew T. Hussey

Presenter 1 Affiliation

Simon Fraser Univ.

Paper Title 2

Interpreting the British History across Time: Trojan Genealogies in Welsh Manuscripts

Presenter 2 Name

Georgia Henley

Presenter 2 Affiliation

Harvard Univ.

Paper Title 3

Conceptual Dimensions and Physical Realities as Structural Elements of Texts

Presenter 3 Name

Thomas A. Bredehoft

Presenter 3 Affiliation

Chancery Hill Books and Antiques

Paper Title 4

Response

Presenter 4 Name

Dorothy Kim

Presenter 4 Affiliation

Vassar College

Start Date

13-5-2017 1:30 PM

Session Location

Schneider 1265

Description

A manuscript represents a material moment in which the space of the textual object and the time of its historical production form a continuum between the past and the present. We are able to connect directly with all makers and users of a book as we investigate books' texts and images, margins, quires, binding structures. Indeed, as we handle the manuscript, gaze at its digital avatar, and interpret its contents, we ourselves become part of that space-time continuum. This session will ask four presenters who work with manuscripts from major medieval literary traditions to consider, self-consciously, what we do as scholars when we re-present the manuscript: in digital form, in microfiche, in print edition, and in exact facsimile. A formal response will seek to draw together the major concepts and issues raised by these seventeen-minute papers.

Elaine M. Treharne