• Heated Words: The Politics and Poetics of Work in ‘A Complaint against Blacksmiths’

    Author(s):
    Deborah Thorpe (see profile)
    Date:
    2015
    Subject(s):
    Middle Ages, Sound--Study and teaching, Literature, Poetry, English language--Old English, English language--Middle English
    Item Type:
    Article
    Tag(s):
    Medieval, Sound studies, Medieval English
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/M6MP2C
    Abstract:
    ‘A Complaint against Blacksmiths’, unique to BL, MS Arundel 292, may gesture towards fourteenth-century legislation against night-time work, yet is underpinned by delight in the sights and sounds of the forge. The smith’s smoke-smattered visage is simultaneously disgraceful and inspiring to its medieval audience. Many of us experience a different kind of unease in the digital age, as hours are converted into immaterial goods. For many, the clamour of physical labour has been replaced by the noise of automation. Looking back into the forge, the modern urban worker may yearn for its sonic landscape, with clattering hammers, grunting mouths, and hissing waters.
    Metadata:
    xml
    Published as:
    Journal article     Show details
    Pub. DOI:
    10.1353/pgn.2015.0066
    Publisher:
    Johns Hopkins University Press
    Pub. Date:
    2015
    Journal:
    Parergon
    Volume:
    32
    Issue:
    1
    Page Range:
    77 - 101
    ISSN:
    1832-8334
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    6 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved
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