The Memory and Impact of Oral Performance: Shaping the Understanding of Late Medieval Readers.

Author / Editor
Thompson, John J.

Title
The Memory and Impact of Oral Performance: Shaping the Understanding of Late Medieval Readers.

Published
Graham Allen, Carrie Griffen, and Mary O'Connell, eds. Readings on Audience and Textual Materiality (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), pp. 9–21.

Description
Considers the shifts from orality to literacy and from manuscripts to printed books in late medieval English book culture, examining the range of implications about audiences evident in various versions of the lyric "Erthe upon erthe." Opens with "Preliminary" observations about Chaucer as an "experimental" writer "fully aware of the fictional potential of documenting these changing times for contemporary writers and audiences," commenting on MilP and on the short verses embedded in his longer narratives.

Contributor
Graham Allen, ed.
Carrie Griffen, ed.
Mary O'Connell, ed.

Alternative Title
Readings on Audience and Textual Materiality.

Chaucer Subjects
Background and General Criticism
Miller and His Tale