Karrie Fuller | University of Notre Dame (original) (raw)
Uploads
Papers by Karrie Fuller
Studies in the Age of Chaucer, 2017
The Yearbook of Langland Studies, 2013
Much ink has been spilled in recent decades over debates about whether the Z-text of William Lang... more Much ink has been spilled in recent decades over debates about whether the Z-text of William Langland’s Piers Plowman found in Bodleian Library MS Bodley 851 represents Langland’s first draft or the handiwork of a redactor revising a copy of the A-text. As a result, most of what scholarship offers by way of sustained commentary on the content of the unique lines in the Z-text does so in the service of arguments about the Langlandian or non-Langlandian quality of the poetry. This paper examines the so-called Z-maker’s poetry on his own terms rather than on Langland’s and argues that the redactor tends to represent ecclesiastical figures in a positive manner that does not actively contribute to Langland’s anticlerical agenda. In fact, his poetic interjections often reduce the impact of the A-text’s biting criticisms, perhaps catering to the religious audiences attested to by this manuscript’s monastic and Oxford connections.
The Yearbook of Langland Studies, 2013
Much ink has been spilled in recent decades over debates about whether the Z-text of William Lang... more Much ink has been spilled in recent decades over debates about whether the Z-text of William Langland’s Piers Plowman found in Bodleian Library MS Bodley 851 represents Langland’s first draft or the handiwork of a redactor revising a copy of the A-text. As a result, most of what scholarship offers by way of sustained commentary on the content of the unique lines in the Z-text does so in the service of arguments about the Langlandian or non-Langlandian quality of the poetry. This paper examines the so-called Z-maker’s poetry on his own terms rather than on Langland’s and argues that the redactor tends to represent ecclesiastical figures in a positive manner that does not actively contribute to Langland’s anticlerical agenda. In fact, his poetic interjections often reduce the impact of the A-text’s biting criticisms, perhaps catering to the religious audiences attested to by this manuscript’s monastic and Oxford connections.
When the fourteenth-century author of The Book of Sir John Mandeville wrote his travel narrative,... more When the fourteenth-century author of The Book of Sir John Mandeville wrote his travel narrative, he told stories deriving from the widest possible selection of medieval genres instead of creating a more practical guidebook with information and advice for travelers. While he locates his stories in real places and follows actual travel itineraries for much of his Jerusalem pilgrimage and his adventures in the East, he also incorporates places present only in literature and legend into his portrayal of the Far East. The geographical organization of his stories means that his travel narrative occurs in an imaginative, but not purely fictional, landscape based on the worldviews present in medieval cartographic traditions, particularly that of the mappaemundi. Furthermore, Mandeville contains a combination of secular and religious stories that demonstrate the Mandeville-author’s conscious attempt to combine his pilgrimage and Far Eastern travel narrative genres. Thus, this essay argues that the Mandeville-author produces a geographical narrative structure that organizes the diverse genres he uses by creating what I will call individual cartographic spaces defined by the stories he narrates within each one. Mandeville’s cartographic structure combined with its overarching pilgrimage and Far Eastern travel narratives allow the Mandeville-author to create a new kind of travel text that encompasses nearly every style of writing available in the Middle Ages. Moreover, by bringing so many source texts into dialogue within his textual map, the Mandeville-author creates a unique intertextual discourse community, which he both participates in and facilitates.
Much ink has been spilled in recent decades over debates about whether the Z-text of William Lang... more Much ink has been spilled in recent decades over debates about whether the Z-text of William Langland’s Piers Plowman found in Bodleian Library MS Bodley 851 represents Langland’s first draft or the handiwork of a redactor revising a copy of the A-text. As a result, most of what scholarship offers by way of sustained commentary on the content of the unique lines in the Z-text does so in the service of arguments about the Langlandian or non-Langlandian quality of the poetry. This paper examines the so-called Z-maker’s poetry on his own terms rather than on Langland’s and argues that the redactor tends to represent ecclesiastical figures in a positive manner that does not actively contribute to Langland’s anticlerical agenda. In fact, his poetic interjections often reduce the impact of the A-text’s biting criticisms, perhaps catering to the religious audiences attested to by this manuscript’s monastic and Oxford connections.
New Directions in Medieval Manuscript Studies and Reading Practices: Essays in Honour of Derek Pearsall's 80th Birthday, 2014
Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Digby 145 contains a highly personalized version of William Langland’... more Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Digby 145 contains a highly personalized version of William Langland’s Piers Plowman, an amalgamation of the A and C texts copied by its owner Sir Adrian Fortescue in 1532. In this household book, Adrian, his young wife Anne Fortescue, and an unidentified scribe called Hand B annotate the poem with responses not only to Langland, but to each other, conversing among themselves to an extent unprecedented in Piers manuscripts. This essay argues that Adrian’s dialogue with Hand B develops over the course of the poem, shifting from a mostly peaceful exchange to complete disagreement. As their interactions progress, Hand B expresses a level of outrage at the pope characteristic of a reform-minded sixteenth-century reader reacting against the Church’s hierarchy. He applies Langland’s reformist agenda in a nonreformation text to fit his own early modern initiatives and crosses a line that Adrian’s annotations never approach. When the institution of marriage comes up at the end of this dialogue, Hand B, aware or not, participates in what feels like a personal husband-wife conversation, challenging their commentary with his own humorous but somewhat uncomfortable contribution.
Blog Posts by Karrie Fuller
Reviews by Karrie Fuller
England. Rebecca Krug. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2002. 238 pp. $55.00. ISBN 0-8014-3924-8.
Book Project In Progress by Karrie Fuller
Dissertation (Abstract and Table of Contents) by Karrie Fuller
Syllabi by Karrie Fuller
Sample Assignments by Karrie Fuller
Studies in the Age of Chaucer, 2017
The Yearbook of Langland Studies, 2013
Much ink has been spilled in recent decades over debates about whether the Z-text of William Lang... more Much ink has been spilled in recent decades over debates about whether the Z-text of William Langland’s Piers Plowman found in Bodleian Library MS Bodley 851 represents Langland’s first draft or the handiwork of a redactor revising a copy of the A-text. As a result, most of what scholarship offers by way of sustained commentary on the content of the unique lines in the Z-text does so in the service of arguments about the Langlandian or non-Langlandian quality of the poetry. This paper examines the so-called Z-maker’s poetry on his own terms rather than on Langland’s and argues that the redactor tends to represent ecclesiastical figures in a positive manner that does not actively contribute to Langland’s anticlerical agenda. In fact, his poetic interjections often reduce the impact of the A-text’s biting criticisms, perhaps catering to the religious audiences attested to by this manuscript’s monastic and Oxford connections.
The Yearbook of Langland Studies, 2013
Much ink has been spilled in recent decades over debates about whether the Z-text of William Lang... more Much ink has been spilled in recent decades over debates about whether the Z-text of William Langland’s Piers Plowman found in Bodleian Library MS Bodley 851 represents Langland’s first draft or the handiwork of a redactor revising a copy of the A-text. As a result, most of what scholarship offers by way of sustained commentary on the content of the unique lines in the Z-text does so in the service of arguments about the Langlandian or non-Langlandian quality of the poetry. This paper examines the so-called Z-maker’s poetry on his own terms rather than on Langland’s and argues that the redactor tends to represent ecclesiastical figures in a positive manner that does not actively contribute to Langland’s anticlerical agenda. In fact, his poetic interjections often reduce the impact of the A-text’s biting criticisms, perhaps catering to the religious audiences attested to by this manuscript’s monastic and Oxford connections.
When the fourteenth-century author of The Book of Sir John Mandeville wrote his travel narrative,... more When the fourteenth-century author of The Book of Sir John Mandeville wrote his travel narrative, he told stories deriving from the widest possible selection of medieval genres instead of creating a more practical guidebook with information and advice for travelers. While he locates his stories in real places and follows actual travel itineraries for much of his Jerusalem pilgrimage and his adventures in the East, he also incorporates places present only in literature and legend into his portrayal of the Far East. The geographical organization of his stories means that his travel narrative occurs in an imaginative, but not purely fictional, landscape based on the worldviews present in medieval cartographic traditions, particularly that of the mappaemundi. Furthermore, Mandeville contains a combination of secular and religious stories that demonstrate the Mandeville-author’s conscious attempt to combine his pilgrimage and Far Eastern travel narrative genres. Thus, this essay argues that the Mandeville-author produces a geographical narrative structure that organizes the diverse genres he uses by creating what I will call individual cartographic spaces defined by the stories he narrates within each one. Mandeville’s cartographic structure combined with its overarching pilgrimage and Far Eastern travel narratives allow the Mandeville-author to create a new kind of travel text that encompasses nearly every style of writing available in the Middle Ages. Moreover, by bringing so many source texts into dialogue within his textual map, the Mandeville-author creates a unique intertextual discourse community, which he both participates in and facilitates.
Much ink has been spilled in recent decades over debates about whether the Z-text of William Lang... more Much ink has been spilled in recent decades over debates about whether the Z-text of William Langland’s Piers Plowman found in Bodleian Library MS Bodley 851 represents Langland’s first draft or the handiwork of a redactor revising a copy of the A-text. As a result, most of what scholarship offers by way of sustained commentary on the content of the unique lines in the Z-text does so in the service of arguments about the Langlandian or non-Langlandian quality of the poetry. This paper examines the so-called Z-maker’s poetry on his own terms rather than on Langland’s and argues that the redactor tends to represent ecclesiastical figures in a positive manner that does not actively contribute to Langland’s anticlerical agenda. In fact, his poetic interjections often reduce the impact of the A-text’s biting criticisms, perhaps catering to the religious audiences attested to by this manuscript’s monastic and Oxford connections.
New Directions in Medieval Manuscript Studies and Reading Practices: Essays in Honour of Derek Pearsall's 80th Birthday, 2014
Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Digby 145 contains a highly personalized version of William Langland’... more Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Digby 145 contains a highly personalized version of William Langland’s Piers Plowman, an amalgamation of the A and C texts copied by its owner Sir Adrian Fortescue in 1532. In this household book, Adrian, his young wife Anne Fortescue, and an unidentified scribe called Hand B annotate the poem with responses not only to Langland, but to each other, conversing among themselves to an extent unprecedented in Piers manuscripts. This essay argues that Adrian’s dialogue with Hand B develops over the course of the poem, shifting from a mostly peaceful exchange to complete disagreement. As their interactions progress, Hand B expresses a level of outrage at the pope characteristic of a reform-minded sixteenth-century reader reacting against the Church’s hierarchy. He applies Langland’s reformist agenda in a nonreformation text to fit his own early modern initiatives and crosses a line that Adrian’s annotations never approach. When the institution of marriage comes up at the end of this dialogue, Hand B, aware or not, participates in what feels like a personal husband-wife conversation, challenging their commentary with his own humorous but somewhat uncomfortable contribution.
England. Rebecca Krug. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2002. 238 pp. $55.00. ISBN 0-8014-3924-8.