Bruce R. Burningham - Performance, Cognition, and the Oral Tradition

Abstract

Through an engagement with the work of various cognitive theorists this paper will examine some of the residual texts of the pan-European oral tradition - particularly the Spanish epic and the Romancero, but also Beowulf - in order to articulate a more expansive theory of medieval theater, one that does not depend on written "playscripts" for its definition, but rather focuses on the cognitive and performative aspects of the Iberian "oral" tradition.

Bio

Bruce Burningham is Professor of Hispanic Studies and Theatre at Illinois State University, where he specializes in medieval and early modern Spanish and Latin American literature, Hispanic theater, and performance theory. He is the author of Tilting Cervantes: Baroque Reflections on Postmodern Culture (Vanderbilt UP, 2008) and Radical Theatricality: Jongleuresque Performance on the Early Spanish Stage (Purdue UP, 2007).