Meaning and Multi-Centeredness in (Postmodern) Medieval Historiography: the Foundation History of Fountains Abbey

Meaning and Multi-Centeredness in (Postmodern) Medieval Historiography: the Foundation History of Fountains Abbey Elizabeth Freeman I . MEDIEVAL HISTORIOGRAPHY AS P O S T M O D E R N HISTORIOGRAPHY? 1. Definitions: 'Postmodernism' and 'range and va A recent article appearing in this journal has revisited the issue of medieval studies' engagement with elements of contemporary literary theory. The article, John O. Ward's '"Chronicle" and "History": The Medieval Origins of Postmodern Historiographical Practice?', argues that medieval histories, chronicles and annals are examples of a pluralist and decentered approach to knowledge which is the hallmark of what w e know as 'postmodernism'.1 Ward presents medieval historiography in all its diversity—vernacular 1 Parergon n.s. 14 (1997), pp. 101-28. 44 Elizabeth Freeman chansons de geste, Romance poems, Latin epics, prose and verse biographies, fabulous histories such as Geoffrey of Monmouth's history of the kings of Britain, sober and sensible histories such as William of Malmesbury's histories of England—and this abundance of topics, forms and genres is presented as evidence of medieval historiography's proto-postmodernism. A s Ward states: 'What most entitles medieval historiography ... to the position of precursor of postmodern practices is its enormous range and variety.'2 Ironically, although the reference to postmodern debates places Ward's article firmly within a n e w and growing trend in contemporary medieval studies,3 the impetus behind the argument is the oldest in the book—defining and defending the characteristics of the medieval world in contrast to the Renaissance. Most medievalists are heartily sick of this comparison and ignore it altogether, given that the Middle Ages have generally come out on the wrong side of the binary divide. However, the assertion of Renaissance criticism and objectivity versus medieval anachronism and credulity has had a particularly lingering influence on the study of medieval historiography. This is because one of the criteria 2 Ward, "Chronicle' and 'History", 122. 3 For medievalists and postmodern debates, see the recent studies by Paul Freedman and Gabrielle M. Spiegel, 'Medievalisms Old and New: The Rediscovery of Alterity in North American Medieval Studies', American Historical Review 103 (1998), pp. 677-704 and the special medieval issue of New Literary History 28 (1997). Other studies appear in R. Howard Bloch and Stephen G. Nichols (eds), Medievalism and the Modernist Temp (Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996); John Van Engen (ed.), The Past and Future ofMedieval Studies (Notre Dame an London: University of Notre Dame Press, 1994); Gabrielle M. Spiegel, 'History and Post-Modernisrn IV, Past and Present 135 (1992), pp. 194208 , and Lee Patterson, 'On the Margin: Postmodernism, Ironic History and Medieval Studies', Speculum 65 (1990), pp. 87-108. Foundation History ofFountains Abbey 45 by which Renaissance thinkers defined the Middle Ages in the first place was the alleged absence of a 'sense of the past'. In its crudest form this claim no longer has currency, although more subtle variations certainly remain. For example, even ostensibly neutral assessments of medieval histories still proceed from the modernist view that the study of history should be the study of change over time, thus leading scholars to criticise the medieval preoccupation with continuity and tradition. Hence, medieval historiography is still often described in terms of the qualities it lacked (lack of sense of anachronism; lack of distinction between history, fiction, forgery and myth) rather than the qualities it possessed.4 This is some of the background to Ward's article and the main debate to which it responds. By concentrating on the range and variety of medieval historiography Ward has managed to redefine what was previously considered inconsistency and so define medieval historiography as presence rather than absence. H e describes this variety of themes, practices and genres as the characteristic feature of medieval historiography and, more than this, as the 'seeds' of today's postmodern approach to history-writing. This latter point locates the article within the long tradition of the 'Middle Ages as origin' argument, the argument that current 4 For a convenient catalogue of the 'litany of errors' traditionall to medieval histories, see Gabrielle M. Spiegel, 'Genealogy: Form and Function in Medieval Historical Narrative', History and Theory 22 (1983...