
Imagining a Medieval English Nation
Kathy Lavezzo(Author)
University of Minnesota Press
Published on 10. December 2003
Book
Paperback/Softback
394 pages
978-0-8166-3735-5 (ISBN)
Description
The first comprehensive analysis of English national identity in the late Middle Ages
During the late Middle Ages, the increasing expansion of administrative, legal, and military systems by a central government, together with the greater involvement of the commons in national life, brought England closer than ever to political nationhood. Examining a diverse array of texts-ranging from Latin and vernacular historiography to Lollard tracts, Ricardian poetry, and chivalric treatises-this volume reveals the variety of forms "England" assumed when it was imagined in the medieval West.
These essays disrupt conventional thinking about the relationship between premodernity and modernity, challenge traditional preconceptions regarding the origins of the nation, and complicate theories about the workings of nationalism. Imagining a Medieval English Nation is not only a collection of new readings of major canonical works by leading medievalists, it is among the first book-length analyses on the subject and of critical interest.
Contributors: Kathleen Davis, Bucknell U; L. O. Aranye Fradenburg, U of California, Santa Barbara; Andrew Galloway, Cornell U; Jill C. Havens, Baylor U; Peggy A. Knapp, Carnegie Mellon U; Larry Scanlon, Rutgers U; D. Vance Smith, Princeton U; Claire Sponsler, U of Iowa; Lynn Staley, Colgate U; Thorlac Turville-Petre, U of Nottingham.
During the late Middle Ages, the increasing expansion of administrative, legal, and military systems by a central government, together with the greater involvement of the commons in national life, brought England closer than ever to political nationhood. Examining a diverse array of texts-ranging from Latin and vernacular historiography to Lollard tracts, Ricardian poetry, and chivalric treatises-this volume reveals the variety of forms "England" assumed when it was imagined in the medieval West.
These essays disrupt conventional thinking about the relationship between premodernity and modernity, challenge traditional preconceptions regarding the origins of the nation, and complicate theories about the workings of nationalism. Imagining a Medieval English Nation is not only a collection of new readings of major canonical works by leading medievalists, it is among the first book-length analyses on the subject and of critical interest.
Contributors: Kathleen Davis, Bucknell U; L. O. Aranye Fradenburg, U of California, Santa Barbara; Andrew Galloway, Cornell U; Jill C. Havens, Baylor U; Peggy A. Knapp, Carnegie Mellon U; Larry Scanlon, Rutgers U; D. Vance Smith, Princeton U; Claire Sponsler, U of Iowa; Lynn Staley, Colgate U; Thorlac Turville-Petre, U of Nottingham.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Minnesota
United States
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 149 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-8166-3735-5 (9780816637355)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Kathy Lavezzo is assistant professor of English at the University of Iowa.