Julian of Norwich: Voicing the Vernacular Therese Elaine Novotny Marquette University
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Marquette University e-Publications@Marquette Dissertations (2009 -) Dissertations, Theses, and Professional Projects Julian of Norwich: Voicing the Vernacular Therese Elaine Novotny Marquette University Recommended Citation Novotny, Therese Elaine, "Julian of Norwich: Voicing the Vernacular" (2015). Dissertations (2009 -). Paper 524. http://epublications.marquette.edu/dissertations_mu/524 JULIAN OF NORWICH: VOICING THE VERNACULAR by Therese Novotny, B.A., M.A. A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School, Marquette University, in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Milwaukee, Wisconsin May 2015 ABSTRACT JULIAN OF NORWICH: VOICING THE VERNACULAR Therese Novotny, B.A., M.A. Marquette University, 2015 Julian of Norwich (1342-1416), the subject of my dissertation, was a Christian mystic whose writings, Revelation of Love and A Book of Showings, are the earliest surviving texts in the English language written by a woman. The question that has puzzled scholars is how could a woman of her time express her vision in such innovative and literary language? The reason scholars have puzzled over this for centuries is that women had been denied access to traditional education. Some scholars have answered this problem through close textual comparisons linking her text to those in the patristic tradition or through modern feminist theory. The result has been that each scholar has interpreted her text in narrow constructs linked to his or her own theories. Yet, wider forms of education can account for her innovative language. I argue that she drew from a rich reservoir of rhetorical models readily available to her in Norwich in oral discourse and visual art. To examine this concept, I analyze oral and visual rhetorics available to any medieval person during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The first chapter establishes Norwich as a vibrant cultural hub, filled with interconnected oral, visual, and textual rhetoric. The second chapter examines orally available rhetoric in sermons, mystery plays (N-Town Cycle), and religious prayer books (Ancrene Wisse). The third chapter examines the visual rhetoric of the passion in paintings, panels, sculpture, and manuscript marginalia. I examine the famous Despenser Retable, Norwich Cathedral’s St. Andrew’s Chapel, and the Gorleston Psalter. The fourth chapter examines art portraying the Last Judgment, namely in depictions of the apocalypse in Norwich Cathedral, the Holkham Bible, the Wenhaston Doom and the Stanningfield Doom, and in marginalia in the Ormesby Psalter, the Luttrell Psalter, and the De Lisle Psalter. In each chapter, memory devices, ars memoria, are examined as medieval literacy tools connecting rhetorical forms. These forms give strong evidence for her rich language, allowing her to describe time and space in altered frameworks, produce detailed portraiture in words, and develop concepts of “Mother Jesus” and “Forgiving Lord.” i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Therese Novotny, B.A., M.A. This work was completed with the assistance of numerous kind and encouraging individuals. I would like to take this opportunity to thank them. While I will forget to mention a few of them, I want to extend my gratitude to as many as possible. First, I want to thank the members of my committee for their support and their critique when needed. I especially owe an enormous debt to my dissertation director, Dr. Mary Catherine Bodden. She taught a group of graduate students to boldly transcribe medieval court records in one of her courses, and I was fortunate to be one of them. Her patience, sense of humor, and keen wit have carried me through my entire dissertation process. She has challenged me to be a better writer, scholar, teacher, and friend. Years ago, I had gained an interest in Chaucer through an undergraduate course taught by Dr. John McCabe, and I am so pleased that my early interest in medieval studies has been enriched and has grown over time. I would like to thank Dr. John Curran, who encouraged me to take a graduate course in Milton and Spenser. I would not be here without the advice he gave me throughout my writing and researching process, so thanks to you, Dr. Curran. In addition, I owe many thanks to Dr. Kris Ratcliffe, who has single-handedly taught me how to relish my role as teacher. The course she designed for the freshman English program at Marquette University has rooted my background in rhetoric, and it has given me an indispensable tool for teaching, writing, and learning. I also want to thank Dr. Al Rivero, who just happened to stop me in the hallway one day and suggested that I should take a class or two. It was the nudge I needed. Dr. Tim Machan has had an invisible hand in this work, forever influencing my approach to language and linguistics. I also thank those at the British Library Board for their assistance and for permission to reproduce images. I would like to thank my friends who have supported me through this process. I would like to thank Barbara Kurudza, who has shared my interest in Julian of Norwich for decades. I would also like to thank my friend, Anne Chang, for her tireless spirit and unfailing loyalty over the years. I would like to thank my siblings and their spouses – Renee, Steve, Diane, David, Mark, Jon, Katie, Annie, and Mark - for all the countless hours you have supported me and our whole extended family. Without you, I would never have been able to accomplish this. I thank my parents, Francis and Mary Andres, for without you, I would not even be here. You always encouraged me to keep learning and to value my education. I thank my in-laws, Joseph and Mary Anna Novotny, for your constant availability and generosity. Then there are my children and their spouses, Maria, Kevin, Kate, Julia, John, Martha, Meg and Joe. You have shared my interest in medieval spirituality and mysticism, especially as you have learned to make your own contributions in the world. Carlos, too, has been going through my pile of books, and has been a bookish friend. My joy in seeing all of you grow and become kind and inquisitive young adults is a special reward for me. Finally, none of the work in this dissertation would matter if it weren’t for my husband, John. My love for you has inspired me to embrace all the goodness around me. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS………………………………………………………..i LIST OF FIGURES……………………………………………………………..iii INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………….1 NORWICH ……………………………………………......................................12 RHETORIC AND LANGUAGE……………………………………………....57 VISUAL RHETORIC OF THE PASSION……………………………………107 VISUAL RHETORIC OF THE LAST JUDGMENT…………………………160 CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………..222 BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………………………..226 iii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Chapter Headings as Visual Table of Contents…………………119 Figure 2: Miniature of the Crucifixion/ Add MS 49622/ f. 7r…………….154 Figure 3: Monks in Prayer/ Add 42130/ f. 174r…..……………………….177 Figure 4: Ladies in Prayer/ Add MS 42130/ f. 205v………………………178 Figure 5: Lord, Seated Hearing Confession/ Add MS 42130/ f. 185v …....201 Figure 6: Man Kneeling Before the Lord/ Add MS. 42130/ f.177v...…......202 Figure 7: The New Heaven and the New Earth/ Add MS 47682/ f.42r…....209 Figure 8: The Harrowing of Hell/ Add MS 47682/ f. 34r………………....210 Manuscript images are reproduced with copyright permission from © The British Library Board. 1 Introduction Julian of Norwich, the subject of my dissertation, wrote the two earliest surviving texts in the English language composed by a woman. A Christian mystic and anchoress, she wrote Revelation of Love and A Book of Showings, in which she articulates a vision she experienced at the age of thirty. No mere recording of an unusual experience, these texts wrestle with complex theological and epistemological issues. Their range is broad and bold: it includes redemption, salvation, forgiveness, divine knowledge, and free will. The question that has puzzled scholars is this: how could a woman of her time express her vision in such innovative and literary language? For one thing, women had been denied access to traditional education for centuries. Where and what, therefore, was her background and training? Despite a half-century of research almost nothing is known. Some scholars have answered this problem through close textual comparisons linking her text to those in the patristic tradition. Other scholars have examined her text through modern feminist theory, based in Lacanian psychology and concepts of embodiment. A third strand, prompted by Marion Glasscoe’s Exeter Symposiums, has encouraged multidisciplinary studies, but these scholarly efforts tended to stress singular interests, such as historiography, manuscript studies or theology. Necessarily, these approaches compelled those interpreting Julian’s texts to use narrow constructs linked to these individual theories. My research suggests that wider forms of education were available that can account for her innovative language. I argue that she drew from a rich reservoir of rhetorical models. Norwich, her hometown, a city second only to London in size, was a cultural pool of oral discourse and visual art. My research analyzes oral and visual 2 rhetoric available to any medieval person during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. My methodology includes modern social criticism (Carruthers, Bynum, Aers, Tanner, and Enders, among others),1 with an emphasis on rhetorical theory (including Murphy, Copeland, Owst, Glenn, and Happé),2 and art history (primarily Brown, Camille, Stanbury, Rose, Mâle, Pickering, and Marrow).3 1 For an introduction to memory as a tool of invention in the ancient, classical, and medieval context, see two texts by Mary Carruthers, The Book of Memory (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990) and Mary Carruthers, The Craft of Thought (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998). For historical and social contexts of religious concepts, see Caroline Walker Bynum, Wonderful Blood: Theology and Practice in Late Medieval Northern Germany and Beyond (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007).