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Living through Conquest is the first ever investigation of the political clout of English from the reign of Cnut to the earliest decades of the thirteenth century. It focuses on why and how the English language was used by kings and their courts and by leading churchmen and monastic institutions at key moments from 1020 to 1220.
Readings in Medieval Texts offers a thorough and accessible introduction to the interpretation and criticism of a broad range of Old and Middle English canonical texts from the ninth to the fifteenth centuries. The volume brings together 24 newly commissioned chapters by a leading international team of medieval scholars. An introductory chapter highlights the overarching trends in the composition of English Literature in the Medieval periods, and provides an overview of the textual continuities and innovations. Individual chapters give detailed information about context, authorship, date, and critical views on texts, before providing fascinating and thought-provoking examinations of crucial excerpts and themes. This book will be invaluable for undergraduate and graduate students on all courses in Medieval Studies, particularly those focusing on understanding literature and its role in society.
Medievalists demonstrate how a focus on gender can transform an approach to literary texts and genres. The essays in this annual English Association volume provide useful examples of how the conventions behind and the expectations evoked by literary modes and genres help to shape what purports to be an entirely essential and/or socially constructed aspect of identity of the 'he', 'she', or 'I' of the literary text. Ranging across materials from Old English Biblical poetry and hagiography to the late Middle English romances and fabliaux, the essays are united by a commitment to a variety of traditional scholarly methodologies. But each examines afresh an important aspect of what it means to be man or women, husband, son, mother, daughter, wife, devotee or love in the context of particular kinds of medieval literary texts. Contributors ANNE MARIE D'ARCY, HUGH MAGENNIS, DAVID SALTER, MARY SWAN, ELAINE TREHARNE, GREG WALKER.
This coursebook examines the material history of human communication, allowing students and teachers to examine how communication's production, form, materiality, and reception are crucial to our interpretations of culture, history, and society.
First published in 1998, this volume brings together some of the best recent work on the period before and after the Norman Conquest and makes an irresistible case for a number of fundamental revisions in our understanding of the culture of Anglo-Saxon and Norman England. Combining the use of novel techniques such as digital image processing with the best current practice in textual and iconographic study, this volume broadens the scope and applicability of manuscript studies, showing, for example, the falsity of prevailing notions of the vitality and status of the native English tongue after the Conquest. The essays combine to make a coherent and persuasive demonstration of the benefits of not remaining bound to the physical artifact but rather connecting codicology with practical and theoretical applications within manuscript studies and other historical disciplines.
This Very Short Introduction provides a compelling account of the emergence of the earliest literature in Britain and Ireland, including English, Welsh, Scottish, Irish, Anglo-Latin and Anglo-Norman. Introducing the reader to some of the greatest poetry, prose and drama ever written, Elaine Treharne discusses the historical and intellectual background to these works, and considers the physical production of the manuscripts and the earliest beginnings of print culture. Covering both well-known texts, such as Beowulf, The Canterbury Tales and the Mabinogion, as well as texts that are much less familiar, such as sermons, saints' lives, lyrics and histories, Treharne discusses major themes such ...
This acclaimed volume explores and unravels the contexts, readings, genres, intertextualities and debates within Anglo-Saxon studies. Brings together specially-commissioned contributions from a team of leading European and American scholars. Embraces both the literature and the cultural background of the period. Combines the discussion of primary material and manuscript sources with critical analysis and readings. Considers the past, present and future of Anglo-Saxon studies
The study of medieval literature has experienced a revolution in the last two decades, which has reinvigorated many parts of the discipline and changed the shape of the subject in relation to the scholarship of the previous generation. 'New' texts (laws and penitentials, women's writing, drama records), innovative fields and objects of study (the history of the book, the study of space and the body, medieval masculinities), and original ways of studying them (the Sociology of the Text, performance studies) have emerged. This has brought fresh vigour and impetus to medieval studies, and impacted significantly on cognate periods and areas. The Oxford Handbook of Medieval Literature in English ...
Spanning almost seven centuries, this anthology encapsulates the foundation and consolidation of literature written in English, culminating in some of the finest works produced in English in the high Middle Ages. New edition of this widely-used anthology of Old and Middle English literature. Spans almost seven centuries, from the earliest writings in English to the time of Chaucer. Encapsulates the foundation and consolidation of literature written in English, culminating in some of the finest works produced in the high Middle Ages. Now extended to include newly-edited versions of key late medieval texts, namely ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’, extracts from ‘Piers Plowman’, and selections from Chaucer. Texts are arranged by date of manuscript. Full translations are offered for the Old and earlier Middle English material, along with marginal glosses for the later texts. A general introduction gives an outline of key works and the historical context in which they were written.
Medieval Manuscripts in the Digital Age explores one major manuscript repository's digital presence and poses timely questions about studying books from a temporal and spatial distance via the online environment. Through contributions from a large group of distinguished international scholars, the volume assesses the impact of being able to access and interpret these early manuscripts in new ways. The focus on Parker on the Web, a world-class digital repository of diverse medieval manuscripts, comes as that site made its contents Open Access. Exploring the uses of digital representations of medieval texts and their contexts, contributors consider manuscripts from multiple perspectives includ...