{"id":54132,"date":"2014-06-13T19:28:18","date_gmt":"2014-06-13T19:28:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=54132"},"modified":"2014-10-15T16:10:53","modified_gmt":"2014-10-15T16:10:53","slug":"move-over-chaucer-these-days-poet-john-gower-is-all-the-rage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/move-over-chaucer-these-days-poet-john-gower-is-all-the-rage\/","title":{"rendered":"Move over, Chaucer, these days poet John Gower is all the rage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rochester<\/em><\/strong> Hosts Conference on 14th-Century Poet<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"JohnGower\"Nearly 150 scholars and students from as many as 20 countries will converge at the URochester from June 30 through July 3 to share their research\u2014and excitement\u2014about John Gower, a 14th-century English poet whose popularity is on the rise among medieval researchers.<\/p>\n

During the 3rd International Congress of the John Gower Society, scholars will explore the life and work of Gower, a contemporary of Geoffrey Chaucer, and one of the major poets during the reign of Richard II. He was admired by Chaucer and influenced such later writers as William Shakespeare, Edmund Spenser, John Milton, and Ben Jonson. \u201cHe\u2019s has become a major topic these days among young medievalists worldwide,\u201d notes Russell Peck, the John Hall Deane Professor of Rhetoric and Literature at Rochester and an internationally recognized expert on the poet.<\/p>\n

The John Gower Society, founded by R. F. Yeager in collaboration with Alistair Minnis and Peck, has been a crucial force in the development of Gower studies. Under Peck\u2019s tutelage, the creation of Gower texts for use in the classroom as well as research has evolved primarily at the URochester, making the upstate New York university an ideal location for this year\u2019s conference. Peck produced in 1968 an abridged version of Gower\u2019s Confessio Amantis<\/em> and more recently, his three-volume edition of the same text has become the standard text of that poem.<\/p>\n

Peck\u2019s pioneering Middle English Text Series<\/a> also has been embraced by the National Endowment for the Humanities as a model program in the growing field of digital humanities. The program has been instrumental in making Gower\u2019s works in English, French, and Latin available not only in print but online, facilitating research and collaborative investigation. Indeed, one of the reasons for the growing interest in Gower, especially among young researchers, is the \u201cincreasing accessibility of good editions\u201d of his poetry, which are not only affordable, but maintain a high standard of scholarship, notes Rochester graduate student Kara McShane, one the conference\u2019s facilitators. Many of those young medievalists will be in attendance at the conference, which is titled John Gower: Language, Cognition, and Performance<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Gower\u2019s three major works are written in the three languages that were current in 14th-century England \u2013 Latin (Vox Clamantis<\/em>), Old French (Mirour de l\u2019Omme<\/em>), and Middle English (Confessio Amantis<\/em>). Gower was not only one of the greatest storytellers of his time, but also a political analyst with a profound interest in law and institutions, says McShane. He \u201chelps us better understand the trilingual political and cultural context through which these languages work together,\u201d she explains. \u201cGower is very involved in political questions, in questions of growing nationalism.\u201d For example, Gower is the only English poet to provide a detailed personal account of the Peasant\u2019s Revolt of 1381, as well as a complex allegory on the overthrow of Richard II.\u00a0 \u201cHe examines historical moments that give us insights into the institutions and political systems and questions that are still with us,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Thanks to the trailblazing spirit of Gower scholars, original Gower manuscripts can now be accessed online. One notable web archive is the Gower Project<\/a>, founded by Ä¢¹½´«Ã½ alumnus Eve Salisbury, who is now a professor of medieval literature at Western Michigan University.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor people like us who cannot easily go to a British library, we can actually look at these originals with all their illuminations, handwriting, and annotations,\u201d says Pamela Yee, a Rochester graduate student who also is helping to facilitate the conference. \u201cWe\u2019re all benefiting from the availability of these materials.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ä¢¹½´«Ã½ the conference<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Ä¢¹½´«Ã½ will be represented by more than 20 presenters and presiders, including current faculty, graduate students, and alumni from the departments of English, History, and the Eastman School of Music. Aspects of language, cognition, and performance in Gower scholarship will be examined in four plenary lectures and more than 30 panel sessions, said Yee.<\/p>\n

Each session will each involve three to four presenters and a brief question and answer conversation. Presenters include distinguished scholars from North America, England, Europe, and Asia. Most sessions will be held in Rush Rhees Library. The conference agenda includes:<\/p>\n