Imagining A Medieval English Nation
The first comprehensive analysis of English national identity in the late Middle Ages
394 Pages, 6 x 9 in
- Paperback
- 9780816637355
- Published: December 10, 2003
Details
Imagining A Medieval English Nation
ISBN: 9780816637355
Publication date: December 10th, 2003
394 Pages
9 x 5
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.
Kathy Lavezzo is assistant professor of English at the University of Iowa.