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Lately I’ve been researching hagiography and sonnets from the late Middle Ages through the Renaissance, and it reminds me how steeped in temporality literature can be (aside from the obvious element that literature is an art experienced while time passes).
Hagiography, or the lives of saints, are tied to liturgical calendars and saint feast days, and many medieval manuscripts include calendar rubrics as we see in the image to the left.
Perhaps coming out of a calendar-minded culture, the Italian humanist and poet Petrarch seemed to structure his Canzoniere on the liturgical calendar, beginning with Good Friday, as Dante began Inferno on the night of Holy Thursday (these are of course allegorically significant).
Additionally, story collections such as the One Thousand and One Nights and Boccaccio’s Decameron inherently connote the passage of time by providing a set number of stories a day.
Once we add in diaries, journals, and letters, human literary production becomes very bound by dates and part of daily records and activities.
Literature, especially old literature like the kind I tend to study (though maybe the Classicists will object!), can be difficult to relate to by contemporary audiences, as anyone who has tried to teach an old text to a current university student will understand. However, through employing the technology we enjoy today, we can render some of this writing more accessible.
The best example of this is the blog Orwell Diaries 1932-1942, a project of the Orwell Prize. From August 9, 2008 through 2012, they have been blogging George Orwell’s diaries in real time – that is, 70 years to the day since each entry was originally written. This project updates Orwell for readers today by employing the current iteration of journaling – the blog. Making use of all that the Internet has to offer, the group also includes a multimedia experience in the form of an image gallery and an extensive map that enriches the experience of reading the diaries.
Unfortunately, a blog that posted Petrarch’s rime (including academic glosses) in real time according to the liturgical calendar of the Canzoniere seems to be abandoned, but is still useful and live, available via voicheascoltate.com/blog.
For those working in literature, creating a blog that follows the work of texts in this manner can make texts not only more accessible but more available to a wider audience. It is not tech-heavy, but would require the text being either in the public domain or otherwise legal to use. This can be done as part of a larger class project and can involve many different participants. I would be interested to hear in any such projects either completed or in progress.
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