Ambient Media in Chaucer's House of Fame (Article)
Title: Ambient Media in Chaucer's House of Fame
Author: Ingrid Nelson
Abstract: In the thirteenth century, a theory of media arises from a new science of sense perception that understands natural elements as media. Chaucer takes up this theory in his poem The House of Fame to suggest a homology between environmental media, the narrator’s sensing body, and the aesthetic media that transmit words and images. The poem thereby creates a medieval media theory that unites scientific and communicative concepts of “media” to theorize the work of art as a production of perceptual mediation, refutes modern media histories that position the Middle Ages as static or latent, and anticipates newer theories of ambient, distributed media networks.
Year: 2021
Access Model: subscription
Format: Journal
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press

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