Alex J. Novikoff.The Medieval Culture of Disputation: Pedagogy, Practice, and Performance.

Alex J. Novikoff's study challenges the negative post-medieval perception of medieval scholastic disputation, revealing it as a dynamic and multifaceted practice integral to intellectual development from 1050 to 1263 in Northern France. Contrary to Renaissance and Enlightenment critiques, Novikoff demonstrates that disputation was part of a broader 'science of doubt,' encompassing argument, debate, dialogue, and polemic across educational, literary, performative, written, oral, and musical contexts. The research focuses on key figures like Anselm of Canterbury and his students at Bec, who revitalized dialectical reasoning and its application in theological debates, while also influencing the rise of the literary dialogue genre and sophisticated hermeneutics. It further explores how Aristotelian logic shaped medieval disputational practices, including vernacular debate poetry and art, culminating in the institutionalization of scholastic disputation within universities and Dominican preaching practices.

Utz, R. (2015). Alex J. Novikoff.The Medieval Culture of Disputation: Pedagogy, Practice, and Performance. The American Historical Review, 120(4), 1541–1542. https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/120.4.1541