Riley Magane Assists Savo with Medieval Commentary Traditions Project
Riley Magane is a junior studying Cell Biology, Molecular Biology, and Genetics, with a minor in Spanish. Over the course of the spring 2021 semester, she completed a UROP-funded research project with Professor Anita Savo to explore commentary traditions in medieval Iberia. This collaboration had its roots in the fall 2020 semester, when she took Professor Savo’s course LS 456, Medieval and Early Modern Iberian Literature and wrote a final essay on rhetorical strategies in Fernando de Rojas’s La Celestina. Her thoughtful essay on how Latin rhetorical theory informed a work of Castilian literature made her a perfect candidate to assist Professor Savo with her book project in progress. Riley tells us:
“My research focused primarily on characterizing and comparing trends in medieval commentaries, a broad genre that encompasses works that sought to build upon and explain other important texts. Though early medieval commentaries were primarily based on the Bible and other religious texts, the tradition developed over time to include secular works, and my research explored the similarities in form and function between these different types of commentaries. It was fascinating to observe how commentators from different time periods and backgrounds, writing with different purposes, repeatedly used the same techniques to develop commentaries that added meaning and conferred authority to existing texts. Ultimately, I worked with Professor Savo to analyze how Juan Manuel, a medieval nobleman and writer whose works were directed at a lay audience, borrowed and adapted features of the religious commentary tradition even within his secular works. These comparisons allowed me to appreciate literature as an evolving and interrelated dialogue of borrowing and adaptation.
My work will help inform Professor Savo’s book manuscript in progress, which examines Juan Manuel’s adaptation of different authorial roles in order to explain how medieval Castilian writers understood authorship in a manuscript culture. More generally, my experiences this semester taught me how to read texts critically in order to explore trends and similarities. In a previous UROP project in fall 2020, I conducted research centered more in the natural sciences that added to the growing body of recommendations on how to design pre-lecture videos that maximize student learning outcomes and minimize overload in STEM courses. Moving forward, I plan to conduct research this summer on Alzheimer’s Disease at Mass General Hospital to further my understanding of disease pathology. My biology major and Spanish minor have given me valuable research experience in the humanities and natural sciences, fostering my ability to identify and analyze patterns even in seemingly distinct contexts.”