1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910455481203321

Autore

Gellrich Jesse M. <1942->

Titolo

Discourse and dominion in the fourteenth century [[electronic resource] ] : oral contexts of writing in philosophy, politics, and poetry / / Jesse M. Gellrich

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Princeton, N.J., : Princeton University Press, c1995

ISBN

1-282-75221-9

9786612752216

1-4008-2166-5

1-4008-1171-6

Edizione

[Course Book]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (319 p.)

Disciplina

302.2/242/042209023

Soggetti

English literature - Middle English, 1100-1500 - History and criticism

Oral tradition - England

Politics and literature - Great Britain - History

Written communication - England

Discourse analysis, Literary

Oral-formulaic analysis

Philosophy, Medieval

Electronic books.

Great Britain History 14th century Historiography

Great Britain Civilization 1066-1485

England Languages

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. [273]-296) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- CONTENTS -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Chapter One. Vox Literata: On the Uses of Oral and Written Language in the Later Middle Ages -- Part One: Philosophy -- Chapter Two. The Voice of the Sign and the Semiology of Dominion in the Work of Ockham -- Chapter Three. "Real Language" and the Rule of the Book in the Work of Wyclif -- Part Two: Politics -- Chapter Four. Orality and Rhetoric in the Chronicle History of Edward III -- Chapter Five. The Politics of Literacy in the Reign of Richard II -- Part Three:



Poetry -- Chapter Six. The Spell of the Ax: Diglossia and History in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight -- Chapter Seven. Chapter Seven "Withouten Any Repplicacioun": Discourse and Dominion in the Knight's Tale -- Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

This wide-ranging study of language and cultural change in fourteenth-century England argues that the influence of oral tradition is much more important to the advance of literacy than previously supposed. In contrast to the view of orality and literacy as opposing forces, the book maintains that the power of language consists in displacement, the capacity of one channel of language to take the place of the other, to make the source disappear into the copy. Appreciating the interplay between oral and written language makes possible for the first time a way of understanding the high literate achievements of this century in relation to momentous developments in social and political life. Part I reassesses the "nominalism" of Ockham and the "realism" of Wyclif through discussions of their major treatises on language and government. Part II argues that the chronicle histories of this century are tied specifically to oral customs, and Part III shows how Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Chaucer's Knight's Tale confront outright the displacement of language and dominion. Informed by recent discussions in critical theory, philosophy, and anthropology, the book offers a new synoptic view of fourteenth-century culture. As a critique of the social context of medieval literacy, it speaks directly to postmodern debate about the politics of historicism today.