Oral Culture and Catholicism in Early Modern England

An important study, based on little known archival sources, of what happened to Catholic literature and culture after the Reformation.

Alison Shell (Author)

9780521883955, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 13 December 2007

260 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.6 cm, 0.55 kg

'This well-written volume takes an approach to the study of the reformation Era that seems quite obvious - and yet that has been neglected … the book succeeds in its aims of bringing to light infromation either ignored or treated only superficially in the past.' The Journal of Church History

After the Reformation, England's Catholics were marginalised and excluded from using printed media for propagandist ends. Instead, they turned to oral media, such as ballads and stories, to plead their case and maintain contact with their community. Building on the growing interest in Catholic literature which has developed in early modern studies, Alison Shell examines the relationship between Catholicism and oral culture from the mid-sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. In order to recover the textual traces of this minority culture, she expands canonical boundaries, looking at anecdotes, spells and popular verse alongside more conventionally literary material. In her archival research she uncovers many important manuscript sources. This book is an important contribution to the rediscovery of the writings and culture of the Catholic community and will be of great interest to scholars of early modern literature, history and theology.

Introduction: Catholicism and oral culture in early modern England
1. Abbey ruins, sacrilege narratives and the Gothic imagination
2. Anti-Popery and the supernatural
3. Answering back: orality and controversy
4. Martyrs and confessors in oral culture
Conclusion: orality, tradition and truth.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural history [HBTB], Literary studies: general [DSB]