The Spoken Word Oral Culture in Britain, 1500-1850

by Fox, Adam; Woolf, Daniel

• ISBN13: 9780719057472
• ISBN10: 0719057477
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-02-13
• Publisher: MANCHESTER UNIVERSITY PRESS

Summary

Previous studies on oral culture have traditionally emphasized the contradictions between oral and literate culture, and focussed on individual countries or regions. The essays in this fascinating collection depart from these approaches in several ways. By examining not only English, but also Scottish and Welsh oral culture, they provide the first pan-British study of the subject. The authors also emphasize the ways in which oral and literate culture continued to compliment and inform each other, rather than focusing exclusively on their incompatibility, or on the 'inevitable' triumph of the written word.

Author Biography

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

Daniel Woolf is Professor of History at the University of Alberta, Edmonton.

Table of Contents

Introduction--Adam Fox & Daniel Woolf

Language, Literacy and Aspects of Identity in Early Modern Wales--Richard Suggett & Eryn White

The Pulpit and the Pen: Clergy, Literacy and Oral Tradition in the Scottish Highlands--Donald Meek

Speaking of History: Conversations about the Past in Restoration and Eighteenth-Century England--Daniel Woolf

Vagabonds and Minstrels in Sixteenth-Century Wales--Richard Suggett

Reformed Folklore? Cautionary Tales and Oral Tradition in Early Modern England--Alexandra Walsham

The Genealogical Histories of Gaelic Scotland--Martin MacGregor

Constructing Oral Tradition: The Origin of the Concept in Enlightenment Intellectual Culture--Nicholas Hudson