Homo legens. Styles and Practices of reading: Comparative analysis of Oral and Written traditions in the Middle Ages

Collections of Articles

How can we uncover the traces of oral culture in medieval sources when the oral matter we possess survives only in  written form? Is it the case that only the written persists while the oral is lost? What was the status of orality in medieval society? The studies in this volume (four chapters in French and two in English) examine the links between the oral and the written traditions in medieval literature. They do this by means of analysis of literary sources from diverse backgrounds, both geographically and linguistically speaking: the investigation ranges from medieval Spain, through the Byzantine Empire and the Crusader states, to the late medieval and early modern Turkey. This interdisciplinary enquiry by an international group of scholars enables us to define the modes of transmission of medieval texts and how they were memorized as well as to decipher how they were read and appropriated. In addition, the book suggests a methodological basis for research and into indices of orality and for analysis of the intertextual links between literary works. This enquiry, undertaken within the framework f the international Homo legens project, provides an efficacious tool for the study of the practices of reading and writing.  

Contents Introduction:

1. TIVADAR PALÁGYI: Métaphrase et mise en roman : étude comparée des indices d'oralité chez Anne Comnène et Guillaume de Tyr
2. SVETLANA LOUTCHITSKY: 'Veoir' et 'oïr', legere et audire : réflexions sur les interactions entre traditions orale et écrite dans les sources relatives à la Première croisade
3. MARIE-CHRISTINE VAROL: La tradition des textes sur Alexandre le Grand dans un proverbier glosé judéo-espagnol contemporain
4. SOPHIA MENACHE: Orality in Chronicles: Texts and Historical Contexts
5. MARTA LÓPEZ IZQUIERDO: La mimesis de la parole dans La Celestina : une approche linguistique de l'oralité
6. ARZU ÖZTÜRKMEN: Performance in Late Medieval Turkish Texts: Signs of Orality in Literary and Historical Sources.