Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
‘The Prodigal Text Returns: Cultural Transmission in the 13th Century’ is a lecture/academic presentation given by the renowned philologist and medievalist Bill Burgwinkle (King’s College, University of Cambridge).
The presentation was originally delivered during the prestigious international symposium co-organised by Stanford University and the CESCM (Centre d’études supérieures de civilisation médiévale at the University of Poitiers).
Context and Main Themes
The presentation forms part of studies on the manuscript tradition and cultural transmission in the Middle Ages. The key themes addressed by Burgwinkle in this context include:
The ‘prodigal son’ metaphor of the text: An analysis of how medieval texts (particularly those in the langues d’oïl and Occitan) ‘travelled’ far from their original centres of production, only to return altered, translated, annotated or incorporated into other literary cultures.
Transnational circulation in the 13th century: An examination of cultural routes between France and the Mediterranean (including Italy, Catalonia and the Crusader states in the Holy Land), areas where French and Old Occitan served as languages of contact and cultural prestige.
The materiality of the manuscript: A study of the physical medium (songbooks and illuminated manuscripts), understood not as static copies but as dynamic, community-oriented elements that reflect the constant shifts in identity and politics of the time.
Burgwinkle, known for his innovative approaches that combine classical philology with queer theory and the history of the body in the Middle Ages, uses the concept of the ‘return of the text’ to demonstrate that 13th-century literature knew no rigid geographical boundaries, but rather took the form of a dense network of continuous rewritings and adaptations.
‘The Prodigal Text Returns: Cultural Transmission in the 13th Century’ is a lecture/academic presentation given by the renowned philologist and medievalist Bill Burgwinkle (King’s College, University of Cambridge).
The presentation was originally delivered during the prestigious international symposium co-organised by Stanford University and the CESCM (Centre d’études supérieures de civilisation médiévale at the University of Poitiers).
Context and Main Themes
The presentation forms part of studies on the manuscript tradition and cultural transmission in the Middle Ages. The key themes addressed by Burgwinkle in this context include:
The ‘prodigal son’ metaphor of the text: An analysis of how medieval texts (particularly those in the langues d’oïl and Occitan) ‘travelled’ far from their original centres of production, only to return altered, translated, annotated or incorporated into other literary cultures.
Transnational circulation in the 13th century: An examination of cultural routes between France and the Mediterranean (including Italy, Catalonia and the Crusader states in the Holy Land), areas where French and Old Occitan served as languages of contact and cultural prestige.
The materiality of the manuscript: A study of the physical medium (songbooks and illuminated manuscripts), understood not as static copies but as dynamic, community-oriented elements that reflect the constant shifts in identity and politics of the time.
Burgwinkle, known for his innovative approaches that combine classical philology with queer theory and the history of the body in the Middle Ages, uses the concept of the ‘return of the text’ to demonstrate that 13th-century literature knew no rigid geographical boundaries, but rather took the form of a dense network of continuous rewritings and adaptations.
