The Consolation of Boethius as Poetic Liturgy
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press
- Initial publish date
- Apr 2015
- Category
- General
-
Hardback
- ISBN
- 9780198718314
- Publish Date
- Apr 2015
- List Price
- $245.00
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9780192864024
- Publish Date
- Mar 2022
- List Price
- $58.00
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Description
Throughout Antiquity and the Middle Ages, literature was read with the ear as much as with the eye: silent reading was the exception; audible reading, the norm. This highly original book shows that Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy - one of the most widely-read texts in Western history - aims to affect the listener through the designs of its rhythmic sound. Stephen Blackwood argues that the Consolation's metres are arranged in patterns that have a therapeutic and liturgical purpose: as a bodily mediation of the text's consolation, these rhythmic patterns enable the listener to discern the eternal in the motion of time. The Consolation of Boethius as Poetic Liturgy vividly explores how in this acoustic encounter with the text philosophy becomes a lived reality, and reading a kind of prayer.
About the author
Contributor Notes
Stephen J. Blackwood is President of Ralston College.