La tradición oral en la sátira inglesa medieval

Abstract

It is not easy to discern exactly what types of satiric writings existed in the Middle Ages. Since they were usually profane and oral, most of them are lost and only some examples remain preserved to this day in a few manuscript: This article traces the development of a wide range of satiric forms in medieval English literature, including proverbs, goliardic poems, sirventes, fables, fabliaux, popular songs, ballads, flytings, mystery plays and interludes, to show how the satiric spirit of this period is, to a large extent, the product of an oral culture, rather than an extension of the classical tradition of Lucilian, Horace or Juvenal. Aithough Jolm de Hauteville's Architrenius and Nigel Wireker's Speculum Stultorum stand as representative of a more erudite formal verse satire, what prevails in medieval Britain is the lively personal invective, the orally transmitted story and the incisive popular song, in which church, women and politics are the main targets.