[Cmrsundergrad] REMINDER: Tomorrow's CMRS Lecture - Fiona Somerset (Connecticut), "'In cuntrey hit is a comune speche': Vernacular Legal Theory in Mum and the Sothsegger"

[Spitulski, Nicholas]

The Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies cordially invites you to attend the sixth lecture of our 2014-2015 series, to be held tomorrow, February 6, at 4:00 p.m. in Room 090 of the 18th Avenue Library at OSU.

Our speaker will be Fiona Somerset, Professor of English and and Co-Director of the Medieval Studies Program at the University of Connecticut (http://english.uconn.edu/fiona-somerset/). Professor Somerset will present “In cuntrey hit is a comune speche”: Vernacular Legal Theory in Mum and the Sothsegger [Silence and the Truthteller]”, the abstract for which may be found below.
As usual, the lecture will be followed by an informal roundtable discussion with the speaker, and light refreshments will be served. This year, before each lecture, we will also host an “open forum” (2:30 p.m., 455 Hagerty Hall) that will provide a unique opportunity for students and faculty to learn about the academic and career background of the visitor in an informal, conversational environment. For questions or more information on this new feature, please contact cmrs at osu.edu. We look forward to seeing you tomorrow!
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The Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies presents


“In cuntrey hit is a comune speche”: Vernacular Legal Theory in Mum and the Sothsegger

Fiona Somerset

Professor of English

Co-Director, Medieval Studies Program

University of Connecticut
[cid:image002.jpg at 01D03BB4.9D0E8170]
6 February 2015, 4:00pm, 090 18th Avenue Library



It is not a new insight that what is probably the early fifteenth century’s most sustained and thoughtful response to Piers Plowman, the alliterative, allegorical dream vision Mum and the Sothsegger, is also a sophisticated critique of political corruption in contemporary England. What has not yet been addressed among studies of the poem’s political allegory and use of personification, though, is the extent to which its critique hinges upon a specific medieval legal idea whose implications continue to haunt us even up to the present day: that one person may be held responsible for (and even punished for) another’s sin because he or she has consented to it by remaining silent. Crucially, the poem insists (as in my title) that this theory is common knowledge, the property of all. My current book project focuses on the history of this idea, and its deployment in allegorical poetry and rhetorical prose between the late twelfth and mid fifteenth centuries. In my paper at OSU I’ll show what this broader perspective can contribute to our reading of Mum and the Sothsegger.


**For more information, please visit http://cmrs.osu.edu/events/2014-2015-lecture-series.**



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[The Ohio State University]
Nick Spitulski
Program Coordinator
Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (http://cmrs.osu.edu<http://cmrs.osu.edu/>)
Center for the Study of Religion (http://religion.osu.edu<http://religion.osu.edu/>)
Diversity and Identity Studies Collective at OSU (http://disco.osu.edu<http://disco.osu.edu/>)

454 Hagerty Hall, 1775 College Rd., Columbus, OH 43210

614-292-7495 (CMRS) / 614-688-8010 (CSR)

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