A Companion to 'Ancrene Wisse' by Yoko Wada (review)

Abstract

MLR, ioi.i, 2006 217 postcolonial and Marxist interest in modernism as a cultural buttress for (and occa? sionally critique of) imperialism' (p. 11). Yet at the same time he is concerned with metaphysics, contending that it is the * God-shaped hole' identified by philosopher Hans Blumenberg with which novelists like Forster, Conrad, and Woolf are primarily concerned?which of course leads us back to Lukacs. Early in this book Adams addresses the contradictions and oppositions that are thus inevitable in confronting this variety of material by tackling the tradition of the odyssey in his opening chapter, where he offersan interesting discussion of the oppo? sition between what is described as a celebratory, yet escapist, 'Hellenistic' tradition popularly incorporated into Victorian tales of adventure, and a tradition of 'centrifugal odysseys' which deny a homecoming, problematizing earlier assumptions: a tradition, Adams suggests, inherited from Dante and adopted by writers like Ten? nyson and Forster. It is, however, the second chapter of this book that perhaps offers the crux of Adams's argument. Here he addresses notions of 'home' and 'homelessness ' as they are envisaged by Edward Said (particularly in his 'secular criticism' (p. 49): The World, the Text and the Critic and Culture and Imperialism), Lukacs, Blumenberg (as already noted), Fredric Jameson's 'Modernism and Imperialism', Freud, Nietzsche, and James Joyce. The author persuasively marshalls this body of work to offera series of connections that begin to explain the ways in which metaphy? sical anxieties are projected onto empire and the imperial process. Indeed, although it has been argued elsewhere that 'modernity needs its Others', Adams goes further to suggest that 'it is constituted by them' (p. 46). However, in its third and fourth chapters Colonial Odysseys moves away from political contexts?occasionally to the detriment of the argument?in order to explore the influence of metaphysics, and in particular a pervasive 'morbidity', in relation to the work of two authors, Conrad and Woolf. In discussing the former,Adams ranges widely to incorporate The Nigger of the 'Narcissus', Lord Jim, Nostromo, and, of course, Heart of Darkness. In the latter, he focuses specifically upon The Voyage Out, in which Conrad's 'darkness' is reconfigured to reflect a very differentperspective. Finally, in the illuminating epilogue Adams contends that 'returning home from an odyssey is a way of closing a circle and securing meaning, but forcing the circle closed in a world deficient in meaning runs the risk of triviality,solipsism, or madness' (p. 219). He follows this with a short and provocative discussion of Conrad's The Secret Agent which amply demonstrates the force of his argument. Needless to say, this stimulating work contends that the modernist novelists with which the book is concerned wisely leftthe circle open. University of Sussex Matthew Dimmock A Companion to 'Ancrene Wisse'. Ed. by Yoko Wada. Cambridge: Brewer. 2003. xii + 258pp. ?60; $110. ISBN 0-85991-762-2. Initially studied for its philological importance, Ancrene Wisse, an early thirteenthcentury Middle English rule for anchoresses, is now also celebrated for its landmark status within the development of vernacular religious writing, its fascinating insights into the regime of enclosed women, and its impact upon later devotional practice. Since, with the recent EETS publication ofthe 'Vernon' textofthe rule, all nine manu? script versions ofthe Middle English text are now finallyavailable as critical editions, the publication ofa Companion volume seems a relevant and well-timed intervention. The volume commences with an introductory essay by Yoko Wada, summarizing recent thought on the text's authorship, date, and original language of composition {Ancrene Wisse also circulated in French and Latin). This is followed by an incisive contribution by Bella Millett, laying out Ancrene Wisse's structural affinitieswith Dominican regulation, and noting that its author's apparent disinclination to accord his 218 Reviews rule formal authority may well respond to thirteenth-century conciliar and mendicant legislation forbidding the establishment of new orders and support of enclosed female communities. Approaching the question of authorship from a differentangle, Anne Savage argues fora more communal paradigm than has hitherto been recognized: Ancrene Wisse was written 'about and with [...] anchoresses' (p. 46) forthe benefit ofthose joining a growing anchoritic community. Richard Dance's and D. A. Trotter...