Rosemary Woolf and The English Religious Lyric in the Middle Ages: Fiftieth Anniversary

Sponsoring Organization(s)

Special Session

Organizer Name

Ann E. Killian

Organizer Affiliation

Yale Univ.

Presider Name

Ann E. Killian

Paper Title 1

Proverb and Gender in the Lullay Lyrics: Reconsidering Woolf and the Secular/Religious Divide

Presenter 1 Name

Susanna Fein

Presenter 1 Affiliation

Kent State Univ.

Paper Title 2

Decoration and the Fifteenth-Century Lyric

Presenter 2 Name

Jessica Brantley

Presenter 2 Affiliation

Yale Univ.

Paper Title 3

The Passion Reimagined: Preaching and the Meditative Tradition

Presenter 3 Name

Holly Johnson

Presenter 3 Affiliation

Mississippi State Univ.

Paper Title 4

The Question of Value: Rosemary Woolf, "The Wounds and the Sins," and the New Lyric Studies

Presenter 4 Name

Joanna Murdoch

Presenter 4 Affiliation

Duke Univ.

Start Date

12-5-2019 10:30 AM

Session Location

Bernhard 210

Description

Published fifty years ago in 1968, Rosemary Woolf’s The English Religious Lyric in the Middle Ages remains foundational to the study of lyric poetry and devotional culture in late medieval England. Woolf’s monograph identifies the major themes of Middle English religious poetry – Christ’s Passion, Death, and the Virgin’s Joys – and charts their development from the thirteenth through the fifteenth century. Her main argument authoritatively surveys an entire poetic corpus. The appendices offer brief but profound insights on topics that have subsequently received sustained scholarly attention, including manuscripts, Richard Rolle, carols, and the pietà.

This panel invites reflections on the legacy of Woolf’s work. How has her account shaped subsequent conversations about the Middle English lyric? What aspects of her approach prove most fruitful or challenging to our thinking about this genre today? Ann E. Killian