This talk will introduce some medieval authors and explore some of the different ways that they thought about thinking, writing and remembering - and how they might inspire us creatively today.
In this talk I will lay out the evidence for how some medieval writers thought about both thinking and writing, including how different writers generated creative ideas. In the process, we will encounter some medieval authors, many of whom had very radical ideas of what their writing could achieve, existing in a creative world in which the notions of authorship were both more blurry and yet, perhaps, more significant than they are today.
This talk will conclude by thinking about how ideas of discovery and creativity have changed since the Middle Ages - and how we can use practices from the past to inspire us today, with some workable examples.
The Cambridge Festival will take place between 19 March and 4 April 2025.Link to the festival programme: https://www.festival.cam.ac.uk/
Link to book for this event: https://www.festival.cam.ac.uk/events/how-think-medieval-writer-discovering-ideas
