VoicesandBooksintheEnglishRenaissanceoffersanewhistoryofreadingthatfocusesontheoralreaderandthevoice-orperformance-awaresilentreader,ratherthanthehistoricalreader,whoisinvariablymale,silent,andalone.ItrecoversthevocalityofeducationforboysandgirlsinRenaissanceEngland,andtheimportanceoftraininginpronuntiatio(delivery)fororal-auralliteraryculture.Itoffersthefirstattempttorecoverthevoice--andtonesofvoiceespecially--fromtextualsources.Itexploreswhathappenswhenwebringvoicetotext,howvocaltonerealizesorchangestextualmeaning,andhowtheliterarywritersofthepasttriedtorepresenttheirownandothers’voices,aswellasmanageandexploittheirreaders’voices.ThevolumeoffersfreshreadingsofkeyTudorauthorswhoanticipatedoralreadersincludingAnneAskew,WilliamBaldwin,andThomasNashe.Itrethinkswhataprintedbookcanbebysearchingtheprintedpageforvocalcuesandexploringtheneglectedroleofthevoiceintheprintingprocess.Renaissanceprintedbookshaveoftenbeenmisheardandapreoccupationwiththeirmaterialityhasledtoafocusonthemasobjects.Indeed,Renaissanceprintedbooksarealivewithpossiblevoices,butwewillnotunderstandthiswhilewefocusonthesilentreader.
VOICES DELIVERY ENGLISH INDEED BOOKS
