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IMC 2014: Sessions

Session 734: Mode in Lay and Song: Voice, Sight, Aurality, and Understanding in the Medieval Lyric

Tuesday 8 July 2014, 14.15-15.45

Sponsor:Centre for Multimodality & Cultural Change, University of Agder
Organiser:Emma Gorst, Department of English, Yale University
Moderator/Chair:Sean Dunnahoe, Department of Music, Royal Holloway, University of London
Paper 734-aWisdom, The Wanderer, and Lyric Modes of Understanding
(Language: English)
Daniel Brielmaier, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto, Downtown
Index terms: Language and Literature - Old English, Literacy and Orality, Performance Arts - General, Philosophy
Paper 734-bAn Analysis of 'Mode' in Guillaume de Machaut's Lay mortel (Un mortel lay)
(Language: English)
Kate Maxwell, Institutt for fremmedspråk og oversetting, University of Agder
Index terms: Language and Literature - French or Occitan, Literacy and Orality, Manuscripts and Palaeography, Music
Paper 734-cLyric's Unexpected Effects: The Modes of Song and Prayer in Chaucer's Knight's Tale
(Language: English)
Emma Gorst, Department of English, Yale University
Index terms: Language and Literature - Middle English, Lay Piety, Music, Performance Arts - General
Abstract

Medieval lyrics rarely, if ever, fit into established categories of 'lyric'. In this session we ask whether the idea of multiple 'modes' can provide an alternative discussion framework, and whether it renders modality useful for interdisciplinary investigations of the lyric. 'Multimodality' encompasses many ways of making meaning – including features of the written poetic text, manuscript layout, and illuminations. The Canadian philosopher and poet Jan Zwicky even posits that mode can be a means of understanding. Each paper in this session uses an approach to lyric modes that creates dialogue between readers of Old English, Middle English, and Middle French lyrics.