April 5, 2005
2004-2005/038

Distinguished Mellon Fellow at UIUC April 10-23

Mary Carruthers, Erich Maria Remarque Professor of Literature and Dean of the Humanities, New York University, will be a Distinguished Mellon Fellow in Medieval Studies at UIUC from April 10-23. While at UIUC, Carruthers will take part in numerous seminars and deliver two free public lectures on April 12 and 19.

Carruthers will give a lecture entitled, “Thinking in Images: Place, Space, and the Art of Invention in Medieval Psychology,” on Tuesday, April 12, at 4 p.m. in the Music Room, Levis Faculty Center, 919 W. Illinois St., Urbana.

The scholar will offer a second lecture, “Weeping and Argument: Chaucer’s Lachrymose Troilus in Context,” Tuesday, April 19, at 4 p.m., in the Reading Room, Levis Faculty Center.

Carruthers has published ground-breaking work on Middle English literature, medieval rhetoric and literary theory, and the history of thought. Her research covers a period spanning more than a thousand years and encompasses texts ranging from masterpieces of vernacular literature to highly technical scholastic treatises in Latin.
Early in her career, Carruthers did important work on the canonical authors of fourteenth-century English literature, William Langland and Geoffrey Chaucer. Subsequently, Carruthers reputation has been extended well beyond the confines of Middle English literary studies by her two ground-breaking books on medieval memory, both published by Cambridge University Press: “The Book of Memory” (1990) and “The Craft of Thought” (1998).

Previous scholarship on memory in the Middle Ages had emphasized the mnemonic schemes derived from classical treatises on rhetoric. However, Carruthers study of memory extends far beyond the disciplinary confines of rhetoric, demonstrating that medieval culture was fundamentally memorial. She shows how memory was an active, creative praxis for the Middle Ages, not a mere repository of stored information but a machine for creating new meaning by subdividing and recombining what had been read and assimilated. Her books are massively erudite and equally impressive in their theoretical sophistication and ability to move easily across theoretical boundaries.

The impact of Carruthers’ work can be measured not only by the frequency with which it is cited, but also by the honors and awards it has earned her. She has been elected president of the two major professional organizations in her field: The New Chaucer Society (1996-98) and the Medieval Academy of America (2005-2006). The Medieval Academy of America elected her a fellow in 1996 and awarded her 1998 book the Haskins medal, which recognizes the most outstanding book in all areas of medieval studies published during the previous five years.

Carruthers visit is sponsored by the UIUC Program in Medieval Studies.