Manuscript Orientations: Mediation, Meditation, and the Movements of Piers Plowman

FAIN: FEL-263308-19

Angela R. Bennett
University of Nevada, Reno (Reno, NV 89557-0001)

Preparation of a digital publication that compares and analyses the over fifty manuscript versions of the Middle English poem Piers Plowman (ca. 1370-90).

Through an examination of all 52 medieval manuscript copies of Piers Plowman, this project redefines the work of literature not as a text but as a material assemblage constituted by all of its manifestations, including the material and discursive systems that bring it into being. This recasts premodern literary culture outside of the anachronistic projections of print culture by highlighting how the work’s multiplicity is integral to its function. Rather than see these variants as the results of “meddling scribes,” this project regards the work as vibrant and supple as multiple users rework it to fit their needs. This work not only redefines how we look at pre-print culture—allowing us to analyze it on its own terms—but it also has implications for how we can envision the future of a post-print culture. New technologies and forms of expression allow us to decentralize the author and the unified, singular text in favor of communal, iterative, and networked production.