Subtle Arts: Practical Science and Middle English Literature.
- Author/Editor
- Stadolnik, Joseph.
- Title
- Subtle Arts: Practical Science and Middle English Literature.
- Published
- Stadolnik, Joseph. Subtle Arts: Practical Science and Middle English Literature. Ph.D. Dissertation. Yale University, 2017. vii, 294 pp. Dissertation Abstracts International A78.11(E). Fully accessible via ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global.
- Review
- In his dissertation, Stadolnik shows how "Middle English writers tested the capabilities of their vernacular, experimenting with new genres and styles of literary composition, as well as with discursive conventions and practices borrowed from nonliterary fields" (i), particularly the scientific discourses of medicine, alchemy, and astronomy. In his second chapter, "Gower's Bedside Manner" (pp. 78-117), Stadolnik assesses the frame of Gower's "Confessio Amantis" as a "confabulation" between Amans and Genius, a unique genre than draws from medical and confessional discourse, along with encyclopedic concerns. For a published version of this chapter, see Stadolnik's essay of the same title in New Medieval Literatures 17 (2017): 150-74.
- Date
- 2017
- Gower Subjects
- Confessio Amantis
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations