
Writing Regional Identities in Medieval England
From the Gesta Herwardi to Richard Coer de Lyon
Emily Dolmans(Author)
D.S. Brewer (Publisher)
Will be published approx. on 18. September 2020
Book
Hardback
249 pages
978-1-84384-568-3 (ISBN)
Description
An examination of how regional identities are reflected in texts from medieval England.
The period after the Norman Conquest saw a dramatic reassessment of what it meant to be English, owing to both the advent of Anglo-Norman rule and increased interaction with other cultures through trade, travel, migration, and war. While cultural contact is often thought to consolidate national identity, this book proposes that these encounters prompted the formation of intercultural regional identities. Because of these different cultural influences, the meaning of English identity varied from region to region, and became rooted in the land, its history, and its stories.
Using romances and histories from England's multilingual literary milieu, including the Gesta Herewardi, Fouke le Fitz Waryn, and Richard Coer de Lyon, this study examines some of England's contact zones and how they influence understandings of English identities during the twelfth to fourteenth centuries. Moving from local identity in Ely, to the transcultural regions of Lincolnshire and the Welsh Marches, and finally investigating England as a border region from a global perspective, this book examines the diversity of Englishness, the effects of cultural contact on identity, and how English writers imagined their place in the world.
The period after the Norman Conquest saw a dramatic reassessment of what it meant to be English, owing to both the advent of Anglo-Norman rule and increased interaction with other cultures through trade, travel, migration, and war. While cultural contact is often thought to consolidate national identity, this book proposes that these encounters prompted the formation of intercultural regional identities. Because of these different cultural influences, the meaning of English identity varied from region to region, and became rooted in the land, its history, and its stories.
Using romances and histories from England's multilingual literary milieu, including the Gesta Herewardi, Fouke le Fitz Waryn, and Richard Coer de Lyon, this study examines some of England's contact zones and how they influence understandings of English identities during the twelfth to fourteenth centuries. Moving from local identity in Ely, to the transcultural regions of Lincolnshire and the Welsh Marches, and finally investigating England as a border region from a global perspective, this book examines the diversity of Englishness, the effects of cultural contact on identity, and how English writers imagined their place in the world.
Reviews / Votes
Dolmans demonstrates multidirectional readings that refuse the choice between reading out from the center or reading in from the margins, drawing needed attention to the sheer heterogeneity of England's local populations and to medieval consciousness of the diversity of European and global communities. * SPECULUM * She makes an important contribution to ongoing debates about the evolution of English identity in the period before the development of the nation state, and offers a subtle but important challenge to some of the theoretical frameworks that have informed recent work on this subject. -- Midland History Writing Regional Identities is an engaging and thought-provoking study that illustrates the international, transcultural, and multilingual nature of medieval England. -- Victoria Shirley * CERAE *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Boydell & Brewer Ltd
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
2 b/w, 1 line illus.
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
543 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-84384-568-3 (9781843845683)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
EMILY DOLMANS is a Lecturer in Medieval Literature at the University of East Anglia.
Content
Introduction
Coping with Conquest: Local Identity and the Gesta Herwardi
The View from Lincolnshire: Gaimar's Estoire des Engleis as Regional Identity
Locating a Border: Fouke le Fitz Waryn and the March of Wales
Englishness Outside England: Embracing Alterity in Medieval Romance
England at the Edge of the World
Envoi
Bibliography
Coping with Conquest: Local Identity and the Gesta Herwardi
The View from Lincolnshire: Gaimar's Estoire des Engleis as Regional Identity
Locating a Border: Fouke le Fitz Waryn and the March of Wales
Englishness Outside England: Embracing Alterity in Medieval Romance
England at the Edge of the World
Envoi
Bibliography