The spoken word : oral culture in Britain 1500 1850 Language literacy and aspects of identity in early modern Wales Richard Suggett and Eryn White The pulpit and the pen: clergy orality and print in the Scottish Gaelic world 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 origins of the concept in enlightenment intellectual culture Nicholas Hudson Things said or sung a thousand times: customary society and oral culture in rural England 1700 1900 Bob Bushaway. Language literacy and aspects of identity in early modern Wales Richard Suggett and Eryn White The pulpit and the pen: clergy orality and print in the Scottish Gaelic world 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 origins of the concept in enlightenment intellectual culture Nicholas Hudson Things said or sung a thousand times: customary society and oral culture in rural England 1700 1900 Bob Bushaway. The early modern period was of great significance throughout Europe with respect to its gradual transition from a largely oral to a fundamentally literate society. On the one hand the spoken word remained of the utmost importance to the dissemination of ideas the communication of information and the transmission of the cultural repertoire. On the other hand the proliferation of written documents of all kinds the development of printing and the spread of popular literacy combined to transform the nature of communication. Studies previous to this have traditionally focused on individual countries or regions and emphasised the contradictions between oral and literate culture. 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 emphasise 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. The chronological focus ranging from the sixteenth to the mid nineteenth century with glances ahead to the twentieth set the problem against a longer chronological span than most other studies providing a link between early modern and modern oral and literate cultures. This book it will be of interest to students and scholars of British history Linguistics Literary Studies and Folklore Studies Publishers description Language literacy and aspects of identity in early modern Wales Richard Suggett and Eryn White The pulpit and the pen: clergy orality and print in the Scottish Gaelic world 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 origins of the concept in enlightenment intellectual culture Nicholas Hudson Things said or sung a thousand times: customary society and oral culture in rural England 1700 1900 Bob Bushaway The early modern period was of great significance throughout Europe with respect to its gradual transition from a largely oral to a fundamentally literate society. On the one hand the spoken word remained of the utmost importance to the dissemination of ideas the communication of information and the transmission of the cultural repertoire. On the other hand the proliferation of written documents of all kinds the development of printing and the spread of popular literacy combined to transform the nature of communication. Studies previous to this have traditionally focused on individual countries or regions and emphasised the contradictions between oral and literate culture. 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 emphasise 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. The chronological focus ranging from the sixteenth to the mid nineteenth century with glances ahead to the twentieth set the problem against a longer chronological span than most other studies providing a link between early modern and modern oral and literate cultures. This book it will be of interest to students and scholars of British history Linguistics Literary Studies and Folklore Studies Publishers description