Reading in the Wilderness: Private Devotion and Public Performance in Late Medieval England

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書評
書刊名 TitleReading in the Wilderness: Private Devotion and Public Performance in Late Medieval England
作者 AuthorJessica Brantley
出版社 PublisherUniversity Of Chicago Press 
出版年 Year2007
語言 Language英文
ISBN
(10 / 13)		ISBN 10: 0226071324  
ISBN 13: 9780226071329
Bibliography Reference (STC, Duff, GW . . .)
來源網址
Web Link		http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago
/R/bo5485359.html
評論者Reviewer王明月
撰寫日期 Date2015.04.27

Ø 書評 Review (中英文不限 Chinese or English) 

作者在此書中套用當代文學理論及藝術史學說如Judith Butler, Pierre Bourdieu, W. J. T. Mitchell, Michael Camille 等解讀大英博物館附加編號 37049 文稿。作者主張Additional MS 37049 充分展現中世紀晚期英格蘭境內一般信眾閱讀習慣與獨自在閉關中的Carthusian修會修道人個人閱讀習慣兩者之間的關聯性。Carthusian Miscellany (即British Library MS Additional 37049) 在1981年James Hogg 出版微卷後，這部十五世紀英國善本書中的文本與圖畫廣為中世紀研究者所關注。本書作者對這卷令人摸不著頭緒卻又莫名其妙為之深深吸引的手抄本提出非常有趣又發人深省的解讀。她強調正是透過讀者閱讀的動作，這本手抄本裡文字與圖像才緊密的結合，個人獨修也好，團體共修也罷，閱讀都是一項表演的藝術。作者稱呼這些圖文並茂的作品為 imagetexts ，像極了 “室內劇”(closet drama)。
　這本書提供讀者許多關於Carthusian修會的相關文學資料，如the Travels of Mandeville, writings of Richard Rolle and Thomas Hoccleve, the Prick of Conscience 等。作者試圖使這些圖像與文字並茂的稿件和想像的讀者的聲音連結，詳細分析當時的讀者如何想像自己被描繪在手稿中，以這樣具體參與的閱讀形式，他的聲音參與，甚至創造閱讀，展現出中世紀英國晚期基督教徒的虔誠。
關於作者：
Jessica Brantley 現任教於美國耶魯大學英文系，專攻中世紀手抄本中的文化研究以及中世紀晚期方言文學與大眾文化等議題。

本書目次如下：
List of Illustrations 
List of Abbreviations 
Acknowledgments 

1. Introduction: The Performance of Reading
2. “Silence Visible”: Carthusian Devotional Reading and Meditative Practice 
    Backgrounds: The Carthusian Order 
    Carthusians and Books 
    Carthusians and Art 
3. The Shapes of Eremitic Reading in the Desert of Religion 
    The Desert of Religion as Imagetext 
    “Als Wildernes Is Wroght þis Boke”: Formats of Monastic Books 
    Reading Spiritual Community in the Wilderness 
4. Lyric Imaginings and Painted Prayers 
    The Eremitic Lyric and Richard Rolle 
    Imagining the Carthusian Reader 
5. Liturgical Pageantry in Private Spaces 
    Reading the Liturgy: Two Models 
    Performing the Holy Name 
    Performing the Canonical Hours 
    Performing the Seven Sacraments 
6. Envisioning Dialogue in Performance 
    “In Maner of a Dyaloge It Wente” 
    Allegorical Dialogues: The Pylgremage of the Sowle 
    Mystical Dialogues: The Tretyse of þe Seven Poyntes of Trewe Love                           and Everlastynge Wisdame 
7. Dramatizing the Cell: Theatrical Performances in Monastic Reading 
    Dramatic Texts, Lyric Voices, and Private Readers 
    Theatrical Reading in Additional 3749 
    Monastic Closet Drama 
8. Conclusion: Reading Performances 
Appendix: Contents of British Library MS Additional 3749 
Notes  
Bibliography 
Index

Review:

Jeffrey F. Hamburger, Harvard University
“Jessica Brantley’s Reading in the Wilderness is an impressive, thorough, and thoughtful analysis of one of the most important of all fifteenth-century English manuscripts.  In addition to providing a much-needed discussion of a densely illustrated compendium, the book provides a good general discussion of Carthusian patronage of the arts and attitudes towards the visual arts, which has long represented a lacuna in the literature.”

 
Richard K. Emmerson, Florida State University
“At long last—an in-depth study of the Carthusian Miscellany! Instead of mining the surface of this fascinating manuscript for the occasional visual nugget to illustrate late medieval devotional practices, Jessica Brantley digs deep to illuminate the manuscript itself, significantly extending previous work by art historians, Middle English editors, and students of fifteenth-century religion by focusing on its performative nature and highlighting its theatricality.”

 
Paul Strohm, Columbia University
“Jessica Brantley persuasively describes a prevalent medieval practice of performative private reading. Moving beyond previous theories of reception, she analyzes manuscript illustrations as action-seeking cues to the devout or meditative reader. Finding apparently solitary reading experience 'quickened' at every point by its relation to public and communal experience, she stages a vigorous challenge to simplified notions of individuality and community in the later middle ages.”
 

Kevin Teo | Comitatus
"[The author] puts forth a convincing case for the presence of theater in monastic reading, thus challenging the boundaries between public performance and private reading . . . and between verbal literature and visual image-texts, as visible forms of communication within the late medieval Carthusian charterhouse."
 

Herman A. Peterson | Catholic Library World
"A work of high scholarship that brings to bear a novel form of analysis to a medieval monastic illuminated text."
 

Martha W. Driver | Renaissance Quarterly
“In the context of the study of this odd and oddly compelling manuscript Brantley’s reading is interesting and provocative.”
 

Ann W. Astell | Clio
"Brantley's loving and learned attention, lavished on this 'one small and roughly made book,' exemplifies the kind of careful, empathetic reading of a single medieval artifact that can open up an entire horizon of cultural understanding. I recommend it highly."
 

Ann Eljenholm Nichols | Medieval Institute Publications
"Ranging widely from genre to metaphor and motif, from the layout of stanzas and rhyme braces to the structure of allegorical trees, [the author's] expertise as a literary critic is evident at every point. She is equally astute with images."
 

Shannon Gayk | Medieval Review
"This is an impressive book that should be required reading for those working on late-medieval religious culture, Middle English devotional writing, early English drama and performance studies, and the relationship between images and texts. . . . Finally, Reading in the Wilderness is a beautiful book. With eight full color plates and over a hundred black and white images of the manuscript and analogues, it offers the reader visual as well as textual pleasure." 

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