Durham E-Theses Envisioned Environments and the Social Imaginary in Medieval English Literature: Interactions of Mind, Culture, and Narrative, 7001400 AD BAKER, MICHAEL,STEPHEN How to cite: BAKER, MICHAEL,STEPHEN (2019) Envisioned Environments and the Social Imaginary in Medieval English Literature: Interactions of Mind, Culture, and Narrative, 7001400 AD , Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/13016/ Use policy This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial 3.0 (CC BY-NC) Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 ENVISIONED ENVIRONMENTS AND THE SOCIAL IMAGINARY IN MEDIEVAL ENGLISH LITERATURE Interactions of Mind, Culture, and Narrative, 700–1400 AD Michael Stephen Baker A thesis presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of English Studies, Durham University 2018 Envisioned Environments and the Social Imaginary - 2 - Abstract This diachronic analysis of narrative in Old and Middle English texts from the eighth to fifteenth centuries builds upon recent cognitive explorations in both medieval literature and narratology to identify and contrast certain enduring themes in OE and ME visionary texts. In attending to the evolution of conceptions of the self, and each conception’s embeddedness in the social imaginary of a place and time, multi-layered new readings emerge of the Old English poems The Dream of the Rood, and Guðlac A and Guðlac B (in addition to the prose Life of St Guðlac); and the Middle English poems St Erkenwald; Pearl; and Piers Plowman. While previous studies have noted the importance of society to the role of the fourteenth-century ‘public poet’, this analysis proposes a much earlier, enduring link between medieval narratives of dream, visions, and marvels; the thinking, speaking self; and the larger social imaginary. The application of extended cognition to envisioned people, objects, and environments in poetic English narrative moves critical discussion beyond the formation of the dream-vision genre, toward an awareness that medieval authors could treat any environment as more or less imagined and sense-bearing. As the worked examples demonstrate, destabilisation of social structures is reflected in the disorganisation of these envisioned environments. Individual focalisation both ‘personalises’ these stresses and attempts to articulate a new, stable environment through reorganisation of elements of the social imaginary. Envisioned Environments and the Social Imaginary - 3 - Table of Contents STATEMENT OF COPYRIGHT ............................................................................................................................................ 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...................................................................................................................................................... 4 DEDICATION............................................................................................................................................................................ 4 INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................................................................................... 5 I. THE ANGLO-SAXON MIND IN THE DREAM OF THE ROOD ................................................................................ 32 HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL CONTEXTS .................................................................................................................................. 41 WRITING AN ANGLO-SAXON ROOD........................................................................................................................................ 50 II. ST GUÐLAC: ENACTING ANGLO-SAXON HAGIOGRAPHIC SPACES .............................................................. 67 HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL CONTEXTS .................................................................................................................................. 69 WRITING ANGLO-SAXON SETTINGS ....................................................................................................................................... 78 III. THE MEETING OF OLD AND MIDDLE ENGLISH................................................................................................ 101 IV. ERKENWALD HEARS A HEATHEN: COMPOSING ARGUMENTS IN TIME ................................................. 108 HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL CONTEXTS ................................................................................................................................ 110 WRITING A CHRISTIAN-SAXON DEBATE ............................................................................................................................... 118 V. ‘MY GOSTE IS GON’: DEVISING SETTINGS FOR THE PEARL POEM ............................................................ 130 HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL CONTEXTS ................................................................................................................................ 131 THE EMBODIED DREAMER ................................................................................................................................................... 138 THE EARTHLY GARDEN ....................................................................................................................................................... 143 THE EARTHLY PARADISE ..................................................................................................................................................... 146 VI. VARIETIES OF FIGURAL DEBATE IN LANGLAND’S PIERS PLOWMAN ..................................................... 157 HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL CONTEXTS ................................................................................................................................ 162 THE LANGLANDIAN SELF ..................................................................................................................................................... 169 PERSONIFICATION, FIGURA, AND TIME ................................................................................................................................. 178 ENACTIVE ENIGMA .............................................................................................................................................................. 193 CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................................................................................... 202 WORKS CITED..................................................................................................................................................................... 208 PRIMARY SOURCES .............................................................................................................................................................. 208 SECONDARY SOURCES ......................................................................................................................................................... 211 Envisioned Environments and the Social Imaginary - 4 - Statement of Copyright The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without the author’s prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. Acknowledgements Many people helped me think through various elements of this research, but first and heartfelt thanks must go to my supervisor Professor Corinne Saunders, for being an exceptionally insightful and encouraging interlocutor over the course of four years. If readers find a welcome clarity in the progression of argument in these pages, it is the result of her patiently challenging me to fill in the steps of my intuitive hopscotching. I am very lucky, and grateful, to have had the benefit of her exemplary curiosity and generosity as an educator and researcher, and apologise for our conversations running long so often. For a briefer time, when co-supervised by Professor David Herman, I also enjoyed an informal but intensive introduction to cognitive narratology; his meticulous, lucid analysis remains an inspiration. Five minutes’ discussion in the street with Professor John McKinnell led me to pursue very fruitful lexical directions in my Rood chapter, while Dr David Ashurst encouraged me to submit a paper to Bergen’s Old Norse postgraduate symposium that eventually informed that chapter as well. My Guðlac chapter, as well, improved from its reception as a paper at the 2016 Cognitive Futures in the Humanities in Helsinki. Out of Anglo-Saxonist camaraderie, Dr Michael Bintley offered detailed discussion on my Old English research and chapter drafts, while Dr Megan Cavell unfailingly responded to any questions about riddles. My colleagues in Durham were a never-ending source of support, especially Dr Alex Wilson, a participant in too many conversations to count; my cognitive conference-mates Drs Angela Woods, Hilary Powell, and Peter Garratt; and the members of Durham’s Medieval and Early Modern Student Association (MEMSA)—remembering especially Rachael Muirhead, who should still be with us. Much of my time in Durham was spent on the convivial grounds of Ustinov College, which offered me residential support as one of their Junior Research Fellows but also socially, surprising me a wealth of friends, both staff and fellow postgraduates—they are too many to mention