Memory and Early Monastic Literary Practices

Abstract

This article argues that certain important aspects of the institutionalized literary practices of early cenobitic monasticism and the rhetorics related to them may be significantly illuminated by insights from the cognitive study of the human mind and its relationship with the world. Using examples from our sources of early cenobitic monasticism in Egypt, specifically writings from the Pachomian federation and Shenoute of Atripe, this article suggests ways i which cognitive perspectives on memory and literature may shed light on the practices of reading, memorizing, and interpreting authoritative texts, and t corresponding need to control such practices, in the early monastic communities. In doing so, this article argues for the importance of keeping both individual and collective processes of memory in mind if we want to understand the influence of the mechanics of human memory systems on the ideas and practices of the early monastic communities, and suggests ways in which such perspectives may be combined.

The Era of the Martyrs

“…These texts were part of the cognitive ecology of the monks. 111 In a similar way, Malcolm Choat argues that monastic genealogies found in inscriptions in monasteries were important cognitive artefacts: 'literally embedded in the walls and floors of their cells, before their eyes every day as they walked throughout the monastery, prayed, ate, and worked, they are a much more direct and constant presence than the sermons of their abbots, or the texts they read or memorised as part of their education'. 112 Although the observations made by Lundhaug and Choat are certainly interesting, critics of historical cognitive science have pointed out that they do not see what this new theoretical framework of cognitive ecology adds to what historians have already drawn from the primary sources themselves.…”

The Creation of Selves as a Social Practice and Cognitive Process: A Study of the Construction of Selves in Medieval Graffiti

“…This is known as distributed cognition, and it has been demonstrated how the concept can explain complex teamwork and various other kinds of interaction between an agent and his or her surroundings. Examples are the use of a notebook to aid the memory (Clark and Chalmers 2010, 33-37), the various coordinated operations necessary for running a theatre performance in the Globe (Tribble 2005), the performance of a research project (Giere and Moffatt 2003: 305-8), and negotiation and formation of memory in a social group (Barnier et al 2008;Lundhaug 2014). Distributed cognition offers interesting perspectives when discussing how inscriptions from the same context relate to each other, though it should be remarked that the concept is developed for describing simultaneous interaction and not interaction over time.…”