Controlling Readers

McGrady, Deborah

doi:10.3138/9781442668157

Cited by 2 publications

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“…In such a way, 'the concept of the individual reader promised for [vernacular writers] and their works an aura of authority'. 33 Lydgate similarly turns to his readers as a source for granting both his work and himself greater authority.…”

Section: Modelled Nonlinearity In Titus and Vespasianmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nonlinear reading

Blatt¹

2018

Participatory Reading in Late-Medieval England

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The book of common prayer for the first time presented the reformed services for worship as reconceived in the wake of English separation from the Church of Rome. In considering medieval reading practices, a passage from its preface deserves particular attention. The preface targets for condemnation the consequences of what it considers flawed Catholic practices of textual organization, stating that the Bible 'hath be so altered, broken and neglected by plaintyng in uncerteyne stories, Legendes, Responds, Verses, vaine repetitions, Commemorations and Sinodalles', and asserts that such additions 'breake the continual course of the reading of the scripture' (Aii r-iii r). The book of common prayer thus targets practices of textual organization that can be considered collative, relying on the collation of multiple external texts or excerpts drawn together into a single work. 1 Perhaps the most commonplace example of such a work is one that dominated literary and devotional culture in the later Middle Ages, the book of hours. How books of hours compiled texts together, drawn from the Bible and liturgical books, leads directly to the condemnation issued in The book of common prayer. As addressed in the preface, this type of textual organization also prompts a particular reading practice. This reading practice is known as 'nonlinear', 'nonsequential', or 'selective' reading, and it is most conventionally performed when apprehending a text organized into sections, called 'nodes' or 'lexia' in digital media. 2 The number of terms to describe the concept refers to an inherent contradiction: nonlinear, discontinuous, nonsequential reading can still be said to occur linearly, continuously, or sequentially, as a reader follows the order of words in grammatical sequence or creates a sequence even out of image and text located in separate regions of the page. I have followed the usage of digital media critics in my preference for the term 'nonlinear', in part because it also relates to terms used

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Section: Modelled Nonlinearity In Titus and Vespasianmentioning

confidence: 99%