Connecting the Dots

Toward Mapping a Network of Early English Lyrics

For a talk at the Medieval Song Network Workshop 1, London, UK, 6 September 2010.

There is a widespread belief that short English poems and songs were a fragmentary or marginal textual phenomenon in the late medieval period. Instead I argue for the tenacity of English lyric, which circulated in a pattern best described as a network.

In my talk I will discuss the use of social networks analysis software to map out a web of 68 manuscripts produced from 1200 to 1400. My talk will then explore the nature and theoretical uses of a textual network, as opposed to a textual community or circle. Complex maps of lyrics and their manuscripts suggest a network approach could be fruitful not only for the study of lyric but also for the study of other texts for which multiple copies exist, including sermons and prose tales. Some of the theoretical principles of networks, such as bridges, hubs, and weak links, can be usefully applied to lyric studies.