Epilogue. Language and Communication
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17561/blo.vextra8.9821Keywords:
chapbook literature, blind person, puppeteer, reading, interpretation, oralityAbstract
Studies on popular literature have shown that pliegos—those folded and printed sheets of paper containing various content, sold hanging on cords with sticks or clothespins—have been distributed by the millions since the advent of the printing press in European culture. However, it is also known that the practice of exchanging prayers for alms emerged much earlier, and that it was the blind who adopted it as a strategy to avoid being classified as beggars or vagrants, categories that forced them to remain within a six-league radius of their place of residence. The use of illustrated papers to explain the world has very ancient roots, supported both by custom and practical logic. The interpretation of images to facilitate the understanding of texts—or even the use of substitute resources such as puppets, which enhanced and beautified what was learned orally—fueled a true industry of pliegos. Through them, knowledge and culture reached even the humblest strata of society.
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