Forschungsstelle für mündliche Epik und mittelalterliche Oralität

Forschungsstelle für mündliche Epik und
mittelalterliche Oralität
Research Project on Oral Epics and Medieval Orality

A New Project: Medieval Oral Literature
"Medieval Oral Literature" is the provisional title of a book which is to be published by Walter de Gruyter (Berlin, New York) in their new series of "de Gruyter Lexikon". The book will be published in English; it is planned to come out in 2008/2009. The idea of the book is to provide an up-to-date survey and assessment of the "oral background to medieval literature".

The book will contain the following chapters:
Oral Theory and Medieval Literature (John Miles Foley - University of Missouri, Columbia); The Linguistics and Stylistics of Orality (Thomas A. DuBois - University of Wisconsin, Madison); Orality and Literacy (Katherine O'Brian O'Keefe - University of Notre Dame); Performance and Performers (Joseph Harris - Harvard University, Karl Reichl - University of Bonn); ) Orality, Historiography, Cultural Memory (Michael Richter - University of Konstanz); Orality and Ritual (Panagiotis Roilos - Harvard University); The Comparative Paradigm (Karl Reichl -University of Bonn); Older Germanic Poetry (Joseph Harris - Harvard University); Middle High German Poetry (Jan-Dirk Müller - University of Munich); Chansons de geste (Dominique Boutet - Sorbonne); Hispanic Epic and Ballad (Roger Wright - University of Liverpool); Italian Oral Poetry (Raffaele Morabito - University of L'Aquila); Romanian Ballads (Margaret Beissinger - University of Wisconson, Madison); Middle English Romance (Ad Putter - University of Bristol); Celtic Traditions (Joseph Falaky Nagy - University of California, Los Angeles); Medieval Greek Epic Poetry (Elizabeth Jeffreys - Oxford); The Late Medieval Ballad (Thomas Pettitt - University of Southern Denmark); Shorter Narrative Forms (Jan Ziolkowski - Harvard University); Middle English Popular Lyrics (Karin Boklund-Lagopoulou - Aristotle University of Thessaloniki);) French Lyric Poetry (Lucilla Spetia - University of L'Aquila); Women's Songs (Anne L. Klinck - University of New Brunswick, Canada); Hispano-Arabic Lyric ( James T. Monroe -University of California, Berkeley); Dramatic Entertainment, Pastime and Custom (Thomas Pettitt - University of Southern Denmark).

The Research Project was begun in 1996; it is part of the English Department of the University of Bonn and is directed by Professor Karl Reichl. It was established to further research on living traditions of oral epics as a comparative basis for a better understanding of medieval poetry (in particular in Old and Middle English) which flourished and probably originated in an oral milieu.

The aims of the "Forschungsstelle" are:

to support research students (in the English Department) working on problems of medieval oral literature, in particular with an oral background;
to build up documentation (books, videotapes, audiotapes, CDs, microfilms) on oral epics and medieval oral literature (with emphasis on Old and Middle English);
to organize guest lectures, seminars and international colloquia.

In cooperation with the Nordrhein-Westfälische Akademie der Wissenschaften copies of field recordings from Central Asia, collected since 1981, will be deposited in the Archives of Oral Literature of the Academy in Düsseldorf.

Colloquia:

The Oral Epic: Performance and Music, September 7 to 10, 1997.
Orality and Literacy: Aspects of Language and Literature

For further information contact:

Professor Karl Reichl
IAAK
Universität Bonn
Regina-Pacis-Weg 5
53113 Bonn
k.reichl@uni-bonn.de

This site was designed by Nicole Meier, who welcomes suggestions for its improvement. It is under continual development. Last modified on 25 January 2007.