The Implications of Literacy Written Language and Models of Interpretation in the 11th and 12th Centuries
The Implications of Literacy: Written Language and Models of Interpretation in the 11th and 12th Centuries

This book explores the influence of literacy on eleventh and twelfth-century life and though on social organization, on the criticism of ritual and symbol, on the rise of empirical attitudes, on the relationship between language and reality, and on the broad interaction between ideas and society.Med...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Stock, Brian (Author)
Format: Electronic eBook
Language:English
Published: Princeton, NJ Princeton University Press [2022]
Subjects:
LITERARY CRITICISM / Medieval
Learning and scholarship > History > Medieval, 500-1500
Written communication > Europe > History
Online Access:DE-1046
DE-1043
DE-858
DE-859
DE-860
DE-739
DE-473
Volltext
Summary:This book explores the influence of literacy on eleventh and twelfth-century life and though on social organization, on the criticism of ritual and symbol, on the rise of empirical attitudes, on the relationship between language and reality, and on the broad interaction between ideas and society.Medieval and early modern literacy, Brian Stock argues, did not simply supersede oral discourse but created a new type of interdependence between the oral and the written. If, on the surface, medieval culture was largely oral, texts nonetheless emerged as a reference system both for everyday activities and for giving shape to larger vehicles of interpretation. Even when texts were not actually present, people often acted and behaved as if they were.The book uses methods derived from anthropology, from literary theory, and from historical research, and is divided into five chapters. The first treats the growth and shape of medieval literacy itself. Theo other four look afresh at some of the period's major issues--heresy, reform, the Eucharistic controversy, the thought of Anselm, Abelard, and St. Bernard, together with the interpretation of contemporary experience--in the light of literacy's development. The study concludes that written language was the chief integrating instrument for diverse cultural achievements
Item Description:Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 29. Jul 2022)
Physical Description:1 online resource (616 pages)
ISBN:9781400820382
DOI:10.1515/9781400820382

There is no print copy available.

Interlibrary loan Place Request Caution: Not in THWS collection! Get full text

Similar Items