Oral History of the Middle Ages: The Spoken Word in Context
An International Workshop
Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest
February 26-28, 2001
Oral culture played a decisive role in medieval society. Due to the lack of any direct source evidence, research into oral culture is certainly confronted with a number of significant problems. Only various indirect traces offer possibilities to analyze aspects of orality in the Middle Ages.
For some decades, Medieval Studies have been interested in questions of orality and literacy, and their relationship. It could be shown that oral and literate cultures were never exclusive and were not really opposed to each other. Many societies practiced orality and literacy together. Writing does not simply displace orality.
The planned international workshop will concentrate on the problem of the occurrence, usage and the patterns of the spoken word in written and visual 'texts' of the Middle Ages. It will deal with the role and contents of direct and indirect speech in textual material such as literary sources, court-, visitation-, and canonization-protocols, Saints' Lives, economic evidence, etc. We will try to analyze the 'speech bubbles' in medieval images.
Moreover, the meeting will be occupied with surviving written texts and their oral delivery. The question should be discussed to what extent sources such as sermons, poems, captions of broadsheets, etc. generally bear and display the character of orality and its associated patterns.
The workshop is planned to provide a very open forum to deal with these issues. Beside the traditional delivery of papers, we will concentrate on guided discussions related to sources and their analyses, research desiderata, and methodological problems (reading time for each contribution will be thirty minutes, including discussion). PhD-students from the department are invited to actively contribute to these sessions.
The deadline for applications is Sept 1. No fees will be charged, and accommodation can be arranged at reasonable rates.
For further information, please contact Dr Gerhard Jaritz, Dept Medieval Studies, Central European University, H-1051 Nador u. 9, Budapest, Hungary ([log in to unmask]). Fax. (36-1) 327 3055
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