Middle English Romance and the Craft of Memory by Jamie McKinstry

Abstract

Reviewed by: Middle English Romance and the Craft of Memory by Jamie McKinstry Karen Derelle Norwood Jamie McKinstry, Middle English Romance and the Craft of Memory (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer 2015) 276 pp. While much has been done in the study of medieval memory practices and the history of the craft of memory, McKinstry discusses in his book Middle English Romance and the Craft of Memory how previous research has stopped short in the examination of how memory functions within individual medieval tales themselves. Because “romances are imaginative, creative works and rely on the memory of past cultures and contexts in order to create present fiction,” the author argues that memory is an essential component of the medieval romance genre (8). McKinstry sets out to demonstrate how romances themselves employ memory and how both characters and audience participate in the creation, recollection, and practice of memory within romances. Using precise organization through eight chapters and a conclusion that progressively build off of one another, McKinstry not only provides a clear and concise background to the study of medieval memory practices, but also further applies the many complex aspects of memory to a variety of texts such as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Emaré, Sir Orfeo, Ipomadon, Le Morte D’Arthur, and many others. McKinstry provides an overview of classical and medieval memorial theorists and techniques in the second chapter giving specific attention to Aristotle, Hugh of Saint Victor, and Thomas Aquinas. McKinstry is careful to clarify that it is unlikely that the lay public audiences of medieval romance would have had such detailed knowledge of these processes of memory; he instead proposes that memory practices and recollection were a part of everyday life as implemented by different professions, human relationships, and the church. The third chapter goes on to examine how specific romance elements such as place and material objects function in terms of recollection in order to create connections between the past and the present. McKinstry highlights the medieval landscape in Sir Orfeo as a constructed connection to the classical setting of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. He further demonstrates the power of recollection to connect the past to the present in objects such as the magic embroidered cloth in Emaré that contains woven scenes from past tales where each image on the cloth corresponds to a current event in Emaré’s own life. McKinstry argues that the insertion of past images into highly-wrought, new imaginative works shows how “decorative memories allow romances to encode a genetic identity along with their place within that very tradition” (67). McKinstry concludes this [End Page 307] chapter with his assertion that the frequent use of memory in the genre of medieval romances is conventional and even ritualistic. The fourth chapter continues with the identification of rituals and structural patterns in romances. McKinstry also uses this chapter to discuss and demonstrate how locations of “present confusion” within tales such as the forest are connected to memory and ritual. Both the fourth and fifth chapters examine the complicated relationship of memory and trust between the creativity of the author and the audience who has the task of constant recollection. Chapter 5 explores the ways romances promote memory and how the audience can trust memory such as through the implementation of memorial objects in Sir Isumbras and King Horn. One of the most interesting features of this section is McKinstry’s discussion of dreams and visions in relation to memory and the past. McKinstry draws attention to complex characters like Merlin who serve as dream interpreters and who are able to recall the past and predict the future. Examining in particular the dreams in King Horn and William of Palerne, McKinstry emphasizes the significant connection dreams have to memory as they are experienced, remembered, and ultimately validated within the romance narrative. Chapter 6 sets out to identify the challenges posed to the memory of both the characters and the audience through destructive forces of forgetfulness and falseness. McKinstry pays particular attention to the tales of Sir Launfal, Floris and Blancheflour, and Gamelyn to demonstrate a variety of ways memory may be compromised or complicated for effect. Chapter 7 examines the progression of time and its...