"Obedience and its Discontents: The Satisfactions of Affect in the 'Wife's Lament.'"

Date: Wednesday, February 20th
Time: 12:00 PM
Location: 6th Floor Parlor of the Library

Katherine O’Brien O’Keeffe, Timothy O'Meara Professor of English at the University of Notre Dame, will present. Katherine O’Brien O’Keeffe describes the content of the lecture as follows: “This is a paper that explores the expression of agency in traditional Old English poetry, using the "Wife's Lament" as my exemplary text. It pursues the radical split between the early medieval apprehension of agency (grounded in obedience to divine and secular authority) and notions of agency in the present moment (primarily aggregating around transgression). My paper examines the work of affect in the Wife’s Lament (the most emotional of all OE so-called elegies) to express agent action.” It would be a mistake to think of this presentation as relevant only to those people and courses specializing in the medieval period, since the presentation will also speak to courses dealing with issues of agency and transgression (such as 2350 and 5300), as well as courses on poetry, traditional or religious discourse, affect and emotion, and feminism/female voice in literature. It will obviously be useful for graduate students working in any area.

Katherine O’Brien O’Keeffe is a leading scholar in the field of Anglo-Saxon studies and focuses on cultural transmission, editing in manuscript cultures, and early medieval subjectivity. She has produced the standard scholarly edition of the C manuscript of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, has edited numerous collections, written many articles in the most prestigious publishing outlets in the field, and is the author of the book Visible Song, which significantly impacted understanding of the interactions of orality and literacy not only within the field of medieval studies but far beyond. Her lecture is drawn from her current project, close to completion, on identity and agency in early medieval England.