Roundtable: Speech, Orality, and Communication in Early Modern Europe

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Abstract

What are the best ways to capture the spoken word embedded in the texts left to us from the early modern world? This is the central question animating this roundtable of historians and literary scholars. Panelists will discuss approaches to orality; orality and vocality as potentially distinct concepts; the "oral" in sources where it has not traditionally been sought; links among speech, silence, and gesture; and how orality functions in the face of linguistic barriers and multicultural encounters. They will tease out the relationships between archival sources, printed materials, and experiences of speech, hearing, and communication in early modern Europe, and explore new questions facing historians of orality.

Sub Unit

• RSA Annual Meeting

Organizers

• John Gallagher, University of Cambridge

• Virginia Reinburg, Boston College

Chair

• Elizabeth S. Cohen, York University

Discussants

• John Gallagher, University of Cambridge

• Virginia Reinburg, Boston College

• Jennifer Richards, University of Newcastle

• Carla Teresa Roth, Oxford University

• Melissa Vise, New York University