'This is a timely book, not only for medieval studies, but for wider debates about communities and communication. ... This is ground-breaking work, conducted with impressive wit and incision, and it yields a great deal of intellectual fruit. ... It ought to be a turning-point in our approach to literacy and in our construction of the history of reading.' The Times Literary Supplement

• Introduction; 1. On beyond Ong: the bases of a revised theory of orality and literacy; 2. Taxonomies and terminology: the pursuit of disambiguity; 3. A review of the secondary literature; 4. The social context of medieval aurality: introductory generalisations from the data; 5. Aural history; 6. An 'ethnography of reading' in Chaucer; 7. An 'ethnography of reading' in non-Chaucerian English literature; Conclusion; Notes; Glossary; Bibliography; Index.

'This is a timely book, not only for medieval studies, but for wider debates about communities and communication. ... This is ground-breaking work, conducted with impressive wit and incision, and it yields a great deal of intellectual fruit. ... It ought to be a turning-point in our approach to literacy and in our construction of the history of reading.' The Times Literary Supplement

• Introduction; 1. On beyond Ong: the bases of a revised theory of orality and literacy; 2. Taxonomies and terminology: the pursuit of disambiguity; 3. A review of the secondary literature; 4. The social context of medieval aurality: introductory generalisations from the data; 5. Aural history; 6. An 'ethnography of reading' in Chaucer; 7. An 'ethnography of reading' in non-Chaucerian English literature; Conclusion; Notes; Glossary; Bibliography; Index.

'This is a timely book, not only for medieval studies, but for wider debates about communities and communication. ... This is ground-breaking work, conducted with impressive wit and incision, and it yields a great deal of intellectual fruit. ... It ought to be a turning-point in our approach to literacy and in our construction of the history of reading.' The Times Literary Supplement

• Introduction; 1. On beyond Ong: the bases of a revised theory of orality and literacy; 2. Taxonomies and terminology: the pursuit of disambiguity; 3. A review of the secondary literature; 4. The social context of medieval aurality: introductory generalisations from the data; 5. Aural history; 6. An 'ethnography of reading' in Chaucer; 7. An 'ethnography of reading' in non-Chaucerian English literature; Conclusion; Notes; Glossary; Bibliography; Index.