ENGL 311 Study Guide - Final Guide: Dennis Amiss, Antifeminism, Sir Orfeo
23 Apr 2016
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Context: breton lays are short romances, preserved in the auchinleck manuscript, one of the earliest manuscripts of middle. Prior to this, it was circulated orally due to illiteracy. Writing vs. orality: the poem is aware of itself as a written document; it is no longer circulating orally. The poem remembers and documents its oral past. Represented by the steward as heir, which means that there is a break in lineage: represents the contest between the oral and written. Heurodis is the story > should a story belong to the oral, or written world: orality transcends differences to create unity and meaning. The king is able to break barriers between animals, the dead, and humans through his harping. Oral texts alter through time, and only exists in the moment that it is sung: writing preserves things eternally, but there is no life. This is represented by the otherworld, where people are preserved, but dead.
