Oral and Literate Culture in England, 1500-1700

by Fox, Adam

• ISBN13: 9780198205128
• ISBN10: 0198205120
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-01-11
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This book explores the varied vernacular forms and rich oral traditions which were such a part of popular culture in early modern England. It focuses, in particular, upon dialect speech and proverbial wisdom, "old wives' tales" and children's lore, historical legends and local customs,scurrilous versifying and scandalous rumour-mongering. Adam Fox argues that while the spoken word provides the most vivid insight into the mental world of the majority in this semi-literate society, it was by no means untouched by written influences. Even at the beginning of the period, centuries of reciprocal infusion between complementary media hadcreated a cultural repertoire which had long ceased to be purely oral. Thereafter, the expansion of literacy together with the proliferation of texts both in manuscript and print saw the rapid acceleration and elaboration of this process. By 1700 popular traditions and modes of expression were theproduct of a fundamentally literate environment to a much greater extent than has yet been appreciated.

Author Biography

Adam Fox is Lecturer in Economic and Social History at the University of Edinburgh.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	x
Abbreviations	xii
Introduction: The Oral and the Literate	1	(50)
Popular Speech	51	(61)
Proverbial Wisdom	112	(61)
Old Wives' Tales and Nursery Lore	173	(40)
The Historical Imagination	213	(46)
Local Custom, Memory, and Record	259	(40)
Ballads and Libels	299	(36)
Rumour and News	335	(79)
Conclusion	406	(8)
Bibilography	414	(45)
Index	459