Francesca Brooks (KCL) - 2014-15 Students
francesca.brooks@kcl.ac.uk

Textuality Before and After Print: Oral poetics in Old English manuscripts and post-1930s printed poetry

My research asks two parallel questions: firstly, how does oral poetry in Old English preserve its sense of traditional orality (or aurality) when transcribed in Anglo-Saxon manuscripts; and secondly, how do poets of the post-1930s period return poetry to aurality by producing an oral poetry for the printed world? My research will explore the renegotiation of orality in written and printed texts and how poetry consciously engages with its medium, in the vernacular poetry of the Anglo-Saxon period and in the work of post-1930s poets including David Jones. In particular, I am interested in aspects of aurality, materiality and visuality, (be these metaphorical, thematic or structural sensory expressions) explored in the making of the poem into a performance for the voice, rather than an artefact of the page.