Dr. Linda Marie Zaerr has an M.A. in Interdisciplinary Medieval Studies from the University of York and a Ph.D. in Middle English Literature from the University of Washington. She joined the faculty of the Department of English at Boise State University in 1987 where she specializes in the interdisciplinary study of medieval romance and narrative performance. Her live performances and recordings, both audio and video, of narrative and fiddle playing demonstrate principles indicated by her research. Dr. Zaerr has been dedicated to historically accurate performance of medieval music and literature and the presentation of texts in Middle English and Old French. She has presented and performed locally, regionally, and internationally, both individually and in concert with colleagues including The Quill Consort, The Katharsis Players, Psallite, and Virelai. She maintains active memberships in professional societies including the Medieval Society of Southern Idaho, the Medieval Romance Society, the International Arthurian Society - North American Branch, and the Medieval Association of the Pacific.
Books
Performance and the Middle English Romance, Faculty Authored Books (2012)
Although English medieval minstrels performed gestes, a genre closely related to romance, often playing the...
Articles
When Silence Plays Vielle: The Metaperformance Scenes of Le Roman de Silence in Performance, Mosaic (2009)
Performance-based exploration of the thirteenth-century Le Roman de Silence can extend discussions of ambiguity by...
A Stylistic Analysis of Le Roman de Silence (with Mary Ellen Ryder), Arthuriana (2008)
Stylistic analysis can demonstrate how the Roman de Silence incorporates deceleration, acceleration, generic expressions, and...
Music and Magic in Le Bel Inconnu and Lybeaus Desconus, Medieval Forum (2004)
The thirteenth-century Old French Le Bel Inconnu and its fifteenth-century Middle English analog Lybeaus Desconus...
A Nonsynchronous Model for the Performance of the Middle English Tail-Rhyme Stanza with Vielle, Versification (1998)
Since historical performance of Middle English tail-rhyme romances with instrumental accompaniment is a theoretical possibility,...
Fiddling with the Middle English Romance: Using Performance to Reconstruct the Past, Mediaevalia (1996)
Contributions to Books
Songs of Love and Love of Songs: Music and Magic in Medieval Romance, Words of Love and Love of Words in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (2008)
Experimenting with the Performance of Medieval Narrative (with Evelyn Birge Vitz), Acts and Texts: Performance and Ritual in the Middle Ages and Renaissance (2007)
The Weddynge of Sir Gawen and Dame Ragnell: Performance and Intertextuality in Middle English Popular Romance, Performing Medieval Narrative (2005)
Actual performance by a particular voice and body for a physically present audience can provide...
Medieval and Modern Deletions of Repellent Passages in Medieval Texts, Improvisation in the Arts of the Middle Ages and Renaissance (2003)
The Middle English popular romances provide some of the most intriguing variants among medieval texts....
Sir Launfal: Performance as Interpretation of Late Medieval English Romance, Lesarten: New Methodologies and Old Texts (Méthodologies nouvelles et textes anciens) (1990)
Video and Audio Recordings
Music and Medieval Narrative [DVD], Provo: The Chaucer Studio (2011)
Commentary and excerpts in Old French and Middle English and a complete performance of The...
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight [DVD and VHS], TEAMS and the Chaucer Studio (2002)
A forty-five-minute performance of Middle English excerpts.
The Weddynge of Sir Gawen and Dame Ragnell [VHS], TEAMS and the Chaucer Studio (1999)
The complete text in Middle English. ISBN 0-8425-2458-4.
Presentations and Performances
'Fiddling with Middle English Romance: Tuning, Timbre, and Rhythm' and 'Altering Sir Bevis: Precipitating Otherness in Medieval Romance', Forty-fourth International Congress on Medieval Studies (2009)
Bisclavret (with Corey McKnight, Gail Vaughan, and Aage Nielsen), Ada Community Library and Esther Simplot Performing Arts Academy (2008)
The 12the century lai Bisclavret (The Werewolf) will be performed in dramatic narrative and period...
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Sponsored by the Oregon Humanities Center and the Coleman-Guitteau Teaching-and-Research Professorship (2007)
With Shira Kammen and Laura Zaerr.