Elections before Elections: Insular Political Prophecy
Sponsoring Organization(s)
Special Session
Organizer Name
Eric Weiskott
Organizer Affiliation
Boston College
Presider Name
Eric Weiskott
Paper Title 1
The Vernacular Afterlives of the Prophetiae Merlini: Translating Political Prophecy and the Poetics of the Open Text
Presenter 1 Name
Laura Chuhan Campbell
Presenter 1 Affiliation
Durham Univ.
Paper Title 2
Henry IV and the Making of a Politically Prophetic Gower in the Vox clamantis
Presenter 2 Name
Kimberly Fonzo
Presenter 2 Affiliation
Univ. of Texas-San Antonio
Paper Title 3
Prophecy and the Border in Anglo-Welsh Literature
Presenter 3 Name
Daniel Helbert
Presenter 3 Affiliation
West Texas A&M Univ.
Start Date
12-5-2018 1:30 PM
Session Location
Bernhard Brown & Gold Room
Description
Inspired by Geoffrey of Monmouth’s twelfth-century Prophecies of Merlin, the tradition of political prophecy in Britain covered numerous centuries and languages, from the twelfth century to the seventeenth and from Welsh to English, French, Latin, and Scots. The genre of political prophecy combines conventionality and topicality in unfamiliar ways, presenting the recent political past as an imagined future and serving (sometimes simultaneously) as political propaganda and social protest. Relatively understudied, prophecies are often unedited and are to be found in large, incompletely catalogued manuscript collections. The publication of Victoria Flood’s Prophecy, Politics and Place in Medieval England (2016), a major study, marks renewed interest in this strange and urgent mode of writing. Political prophecy has obvious relevance to contemporary national politics, particularly regarding the relationship between political discourse and truth (notably, in the outrage over fake news in the wake of the 2016 U.S. presidential election) and the rhetorical use of the future for political purposes.
Eric Weiskott
Elections before Elections: Insular Political Prophecy
Bernhard Brown & Gold Room
Inspired by Geoffrey of Monmouth’s twelfth-century Prophecies of Merlin, the tradition of political prophecy in Britain covered numerous centuries and languages, from the twelfth century to the seventeenth and from Welsh to English, French, Latin, and Scots. The genre of political prophecy combines conventionality and topicality in unfamiliar ways, presenting the recent political past as an imagined future and serving (sometimes simultaneously) as political propaganda and social protest. Relatively understudied, prophecies are often unedited and are to be found in large, incompletely catalogued manuscript collections. The publication of Victoria Flood’s Prophecy, Politics and Place in Medieval England (2016), a major study, marks renewed interest in this strange and urgent mode of writing. Political prophecy has obvious relevance to contemporary national politics, particularly regarding the relationship between political discourse and truth (notably, in the outrage over fake news in the wake of the 2016 U.S. presidential election) and the rhetorical use of the future for political purposes.
Eric Weiskott