Voice and Voicelessness in Medieval Europe

by Irit Ruth Kleiman (Editor)

Overview

Twelve medieval scholars from a wide range of disciplines, including law, literature, and religion address the question: What did it mean to possess a voice - or to be without one - during the Middle Ages? This collection reveals how the philosophy, theology, and aesthetics of the voice inhabit some of the most canonical texts of the Middle Ages.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781137397058
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan US
Publication date:	09/30/2015
Series:	The New Middle Ages , #14239
Edition description:	1st ed. 2015
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.03(d)

About the Author

Andrew Albin, Fordham University, USA Hélène Bernier-Farella, Université de Cergy-Pontoise, France Ghislain Casas, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, France Marisa Galvez, Stanford University, USA Cédric Giraud, University of Lorraine, France University of Groningen, Netherlands Bruno Lemesle, University of Burgundy, France Andreea Marculescu, University of California, Irvine, USA Julie Orlemanski, University of Chicago, USA Matthew G. Shoaf, Ursinus College, USA Robert Stanton, Boston College, USA Anna Zayaruznaya, Yale University, USA

Table of Contents

Editor's Introduction; Irit Ruth Kleiman

PART I: THE NATURE AND LIMITS OF THE HUMAN: VOICE AND LANGUAGE
1. Locutio Angelica, or Language without Voice; Ghislain Casas
2. Mimicry, Subjectivity, and the Embodied Voice in Anglo-Saxon Bird Riddles; Robert Stanton

PART II: THE SOCIAL BODY: VOICE, AUTHORITY, AND COMMUNITY
3. Ritual Voices and Social Silence: Funerary Lamentations in Byzantium ; Hélène Bernier-Farella
4. Viva voce: Voice and Voicelessness Among Twelfth-Century Clerics ; Bruno Lemesle
5. Abelard and Heloise between Voice and Silence; Babette S. Hellemans

PART III: RHETORIC AND SUBJECTIVITY: POLYPHONIC VOICES
6. The Voice of the Unrepentant Crusader: "Aler m'estuet" by the Châtelain d'Arras; Marisa Galvez
7. Margery's "Noyse" and Distributed Expressivity; Julie Orlemanski
8. The Voice of the Possessed in Late Medieval French Theater; Andreea Marculescu

PART IV: AESTHETIC EXPERIENCES: REPRESENTATIONSOF HUMAN AND DIVINE VOICES
9. "Sanz note" & "sanz mesure": Towards a Pre-Modern Aesthetics of the Dirge; Anna Zayaruznaya
10. Listening for canor in Richard Rolle's Melos amoris; Andrew Albin
11. Mary between Voice and Voicelessness: The Latin Meditationes of Bernard de Rosier; Cédric Giraud
12. Picturing the Voiceless in an Age of Visible Speech; Matthew Shoaf
Bibliography

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“The collection is interested in how notions of subjectivity may be augmented or challenged by historicist approaches, the pervasiveness of theological and philosophical theories of voice in medieval culture more widely, and the aesthetics of medieval voice and vocalization. … This is a collection whose contributions "speak" to each other in a number of ways and which will likewise speak to scholars and disciplines that listen for past and lost voices—among medievalists, who can that leave out?” (Victoria Blud, University of York, UK)

“No period of Western culture was more attuned to the modalities and urgencies of voice than the Middle Ages. Irit Ruth Kleiman is to be congratulated for bringing a remarkable range of scholars and their subjects together into this imaginative, learned, and impressively coherent collection. Voice and Voicelessness in Medieval Europe makes a major contribution to Medieval Studies, as it does to Sound Studies.” (Nicholas Watson, Professor of English, Harvard University, USA)

“These incisive essays reveal medieval speech's role in creating communities balanced between the divine and animal realms.” (Stephen G. Nichols, James M. Beall Professor Emeritus of French and Humanities, Johns Hopkins University, USA)

Editorial Reviews

"No period of Western culture was more attuned to the modalities and urgencies of voice than the Middle Ages. Irit Ruth Kleiman is to be congratulated for bringing a remarkable range of scholars and their subjects together into this imaginative, learned, and impressively coherent collection. Voice and Voicelessness in Medieval Europe makes a major contribution to Medieval Studies, as it does to Sound Studies." Nicholas Watson, Professor of English, Harvard University, USA

"These incisive essays reveal medieval speech's role in creating communities balanced between the divine and animal realms." Stephen G. Nichols, James M. Beall Professor Emeritus of French and Humanities, Johns Hopkins University, USA

From the Publisher