Critical Pleasure, Visceral Literacy, and the Prik of Conscience

Abstract

The Prik of Conscience is a lengthy and widely distributed medieval poem (more than 9,600 lines, more than 115 surviving manuscripts). But should we call it literature? Spurring vigorous discussions of aesthetic value and providing a vivid introduction to spoken Middle English, the Prik of Conscience functions as a usefully disruptive classroom “voice.”