Manchester University Press
1 Objects of instruction
Abstract
The ‘Children’s Corner’ is the preferred name among modern critics for the first eight items in MS Ashmole 61 – among them a saint’s life (St Eustace), a romance (Sir Isumbras), and six conduct texts – which may have been aimed at a particular subset of the household. Focusing on this first portion of the manuscript shows how human social virtue depends on acknowledging and cooperating with human and non-human associates in the household ecology. Within this section of the manuscript, the imaginative narratives instruct through animals and other non-human figures, while the direct-address conduct texts (spoken by a father, a mother, and ‘Dame Curtasy’) teach pragmatically. A new materialist reading of this section reveals the recurring method of decentring the human and including objects in society, which encourages reading even conduct texts beyond the constraints of their overt performative instructions. This chapter demonstrates the important effects of premodern conceptualisations of the physical world on reading, on interpretation then and now, and on our understanding of and engagement with the Middle Ages.
Abstract
The ‘Children’s Corner’ is the preferred name among modern critics for the first eight items in MS Ashmole 61 – among them a saint’s life (St Eustace), a romance (Sir Isumbras), and six conduct texts – which may have been aimed at a particular subset of the household. Focusing on this first portion of the manuscript shows how human social virtue depends on acknowledging and cooperating with human and non-human associates in the household ecology. Within this section of the manuscript, the imaginative narratives instruct through animals and other non-human figures, while the direct-address conduct texts (spoken by a father, a mother, and ‘Dame Curtasy’) teach pragmatically. A new materialist reading of this section reveals the recurring method of decentring the human and including objects in society, which encourages reading even conduct texts beyond the constraints of their overt performative instructions. This chapter demonstrates the important effects of premodern conceptualisations of the physical world on reading, on interpretation then and now, and on our understanding of and engagement with the Middle Ages.
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Dedication v
- Contents vii
- List of figures viii
- Acknowledgements ix
- Introduction 1
- 1 Objects of instruction 55
- 2 Objects of mercy 92
- 3 Objects of correction 135
- 4 Testimonial objects 171
- 5 Objects of liberation 206
- Epilogue 255
- Appendix 260
- Bibliography 262
- Index 277
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Dedication v
- Contents vii
- List of figures viii
- Acknowledgements ix
- Introduction 1
- 1 Objects of instruction 55
- 2 Objects of mercy 92
- 3 Objects of correction 135
- 4 Testimonial objects 171
- 5 Objects of liberation 206
- Epilogue 255
- Appendix 260
- Bibliography 262
- Index 277
