• The Coercive Function of Early Medieval English Art

    Author(s):
    Luke Fidler (see profile)
    Date:
    2020
    Subject(s):
    Art, Medieval, Sculpture
    Item Type:
    Article
    Tag(s):
    incarceration, Anglo-Saxon archaeology, Medieval art
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/cfm0-6g65
    Abstract:
    This article examines the spectacular representation of confinement in early medieval English sculpture in the context of poems, sermons, and translations. By identifying a series of features that early medieval spectators would have paid special attention to, it shows that sculptors used imprisoned and fugitive figures to craft a discourse about power in the absence of both a strong state and a regime of punitive incarceration. Compelling pictures of prisoners and verbal images of captivity flourished as a kind of carceral imaginary in the public landscape before the carceral state’s rise, as well as licensing forms of community policing in which early medieval subjects were required to participate. As such, these sculptures model a relationship between art and coercive power predicated on historically specific expectations about sculpture’s capacity to instruct and surveil.
    Metadata:
    xml
    Published as:
    Journal article     Show details
    Pub. DOI:
    10.1215/01636545-8092762
    Pub. Date:
    2020
    Journal:
    Radical History Review
    Issue:
    137
    ISSN:
    0163-6545
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    3 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved
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