'Sche made many a wonder soun': Performative Utterances and the Figure of Medea in Ovid's Metamorphoses and John Gower's Confessio Amantis
Year: 2004
Type: article
Abstract: The ambitions of this essay lie within a precarious realm where an attempt is made to explore the effects of intermingling premodern poetry and postmodern linguistic theory.In initiating a dialogue between these two, I knowingly create a situation where pitfalls are as likely as potential successes; where Lee Patterson's "vexed question of anachronism" (Patterson 43), arises and where Alastair Minnis' assertion that concepts from modern literary theory "have no historical validity as far as medieval literature is concerned" (Minnis 1), potentially problematizes such an undertaking.A pairing of this kind must proceed cautiously to avoid predetermining interpretation to fit a particular theoretical model (Strohm xiii).Although Minnis interprets the practice of employing "modern" literary theory in discussions of medieval texts as a "tacit admission of defeat" (Minnis 1), Paul Strohm vouches for the mediated applicability of such theories as he rightly notes that the purpose of theory is to provoke a text into "unpremeditated articulation," into the utterance of what it somehow contains but neither intends nor is able to say (Strohm xiii).The text, then, remains the central object of study, with appropriately invoked theory enjoying a role of augmentation and supplementalization, enriching the reading through the unveiling of its unstated knowledge and opinions (Strohm xiii).This essay intends to create a dialogue of such a kind.By exploring two premodern versions of the tale of Medea through the lens of J. L. Austin's speech act theory, I attempt to tease out the "unpremeditated articulations" latent within those texts.Austin's theory engages in an attempt to undermine the dichotomy
Author: James Wade
Institution: University of York
Language: English
Subfield: History
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W1490738980