Oral Poetics in Middle English Poetry

Description

First published in 1994 by Garland Publishing, Inc. Originally published in 1994, 'Oral Tradition in Middle English' 'is an edited collection providing a multidisciplinary look at the importance and nature of oral tradition in Middle English literature. The book offers a discussion of the gradual problemization of orality and literacy in works of verbal art from this period. It shows how early typographies proved too exclusive to explain the heterogeneity of relevant texts, bringing to bear the new and potentially productive concepts of "vocality" and developing literacy. This book establishes a new interpretive paradigm for Middle English poetry. Introduction: Oral Poetics in Post-Conquest England / Mark C. Amodio 1 Introduction to the Individual Contributions / Sarah Gray Miller 29 Literacy, Orality, and the Poetics of Middle English Romance / Nancy Mason Bradbury 39 Oral Tradition in the Middle English Romance: The Case of 'Robert of Cisyle' / Alexandra Hennessey Olsen 71 Tradition and Heroism in the Middle English Romances / Dave Henderson 89 The Devil's Writing Lesson / John M. Ganim 109 Dorigen's Promise and Scholars' Premise: The Orality of the Speech Act in the 'Franklin's Tale' / Leslie K. Arnovick 125 Oral Tradition and the 'Canterbury Tales' / Ward Parks 149 "Now holde youre mouth": The Romance of Orality in the 'Thopas-Melibee' Section of the 'Canterbury Tales' / Seth Lerer 181 Wyrchipe: The Clash of Oral-Heroic and Literate-Ricardian Ideals in the Alliterative 'Morte Arthure' / Donna Lynne Rondolone 207 The Alliterative 'Morte Arthure' As a Witness to Epic / Britton J. Harwood 241