Know(en), Biknow(en), Knowelich(en): Piers Plowman and the Poetics of Epistemology

Sponsoring Organization(s)

International Piers Plowman Society

Organizer Name

Tekla Bude

Organizer Affiliation

Oregon State Univ.

Presider Name

Tekla Bude

Paper Title 1

Infinity and the Infinite: Temporality and the Measure of Faith in Piers Plowman

Presenter 1 Name

Stephanie L. Batkie

Presenter 1 Affiliation

Sewanee: The Univ. of the South

Paper Title 2

Piers Plowman and the End of Knowing

Presenter 2 Name

Jennifer Sisk

Presenter 2 Affiliation

Univ. of Vermont

Paper Title 3

Lifetimes of Learning in Piers Plowman

Presenter 3 Name

Alastair Bennett

Presenter 3 Affiliation

Royal Holloway, Univ. of London

Start Date

13-5-2017 1:30 PM

Session Location

Bernhard Brown & Gold Room

Description

When Dame Scripture derides Will in the opening lines of Passus B.XI, she calls attention to his lack of knowledge: multi multa sciunt, et seipsos nesciunt (many know things yet do not know themselves), she says.

Scripture’s aphorism is at the heart of this session, which invites proposals for papers reflecting on the role of knowledge in Piers Plowman. What does it mean to have, construct, or to create the conditions necessary for knowing within the poem? What are the limits of formal, poetic, historical, or allegorical knowledge? How do evidence, testimony, reflection, perception, introspection, or faculty psychology inflect the work of the poem, and how does Piers Plowman in turn understand each of these categories? How do wordplay, alliteration, or poetics create knowledge? How does propositional knowledge relate to self-knowledge and acknowledgement?

Tekla Bude