Date/Time
Date(s) - 20 Nov 2014
5:15 PM - 5:15 PM
Location
Van Pelt Library
Category(ies) No Categories
The Department of French, Med-Ren and Medievalists@Penn present
Dr. Jonathan Morton (Columbia University/University of Oxford)
“False gods, idolatrous desire, and the nature of art in the Roman de la rose”
Thursday, November 20, 2014, 5:15pm
Myerson Conference Room, Second Floor Van Pelt Library
In the thirteenth-century allegorical poem, artifice, misrecognition, and misinterpretation are constant themes, from Narcissus and his fountain to Pygmalion’s desire for his own sculpted creation. In a text that is itself an artificial creation used to think about nature, the importance of idols and idolatry is a key to understanding the Rose’s treatment of love, literature, and ethics. By reading the poem against Scriptural, philosophical, and theological authorities and, most importantly, by reading sections of the poem against each other, this paper will offer an account of the vexed relationship in the Roman de la rose between the artistic and the natural as emblematized by the adored idol.
Jonathan Morton is a Junior Research Fellow at New College, University of Oxford and Visiting Assistant Professor at Columbia University. He works on medieval French and Latin literature and intellectual history, with a particular focus on the relationship between poetry and philosophy. He is currently working on a book project entitled Nature, Art, and Ethics: The Roman de la rose in its philosophical context, and his articles have appeared in French Studies, Questes, Cahiers de Recherches Médiévales et Humanistes, and Modern Language Review.
On Friday November 21 there will be a further opportunity to discuss these ideas with Dr. Morton over lunch in the Graduate Lounge of Fisher-Bennett Hall at 12pm. Please contact Daniel Davies ([email protected]) or Sarah Townsend ([email protected]) for further details