Medieval Europeans: Studies in Ethnic Identity and National Perspectives in Medieval Europe

by Alfred P. Smyth

Overview

A team of leading scholars in the fields of Medieval Literature and History examine the origins of European ethnic groups which subsequently developed into the nations of Europe. The contributors look at evidence for the existence of an ethnic consciousness among the dominant European groups; this later formed the basis of nation states. The reconstruction and invention of the past by medieval writers in search of ethnic origins for their own particular political or tribal groups is also studied from a literary and historical point of view.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312213015
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	06/22/1998
Edition description:	1998
Pages:	284
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.03(d)

About the Author

ELIZABETH A. R. BROWN Professor of Medieval History, Brooklyn College, City University of New York PETER BROWN Senior Lecturer in English and American Literature, Darwin College, University of Kent at Canterbury ROGER COLLINS Research Fellow, Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Edinburgh CHARLES COULSON Honorary Research Fellow, University of Kent at Canterbury SIMON FRANKLIN Lecturer in Medieval Russian Literature, Clare College, University of Cambridge TERESA HANKEY Reader in Italian, Keynes College, University of Kent at Canterbury TIMOTHY REUTER Professor of Medieval History, University of Southampton MICHAEL RICHTER Professor of Medieval History, University of Konstanz, Germany ROGER SMITH Senior Lecturer in History, Christ Church College, Canterbury BRUCE WEBSTER Honorary Research Fellow and former Senior Lecturer in History, University of Kent at Canterbury DIEGO ZANCANI Professor of Italian, Oxford and Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford.

Table of Contents

Notes on the Contributors Introduction Law and Ethnic Identity in the Western Kingdoms in the Fifth and Sixth Centuries; R.Collins The Emergence of English Identity: 700-1000; A.P.Smyth The Making of England and Germany, 850-1050: Points of Comparison and Difference; T.Reuter National Identity in Medieval Wales; M.Richter John of Fordun and the Independent Identity of the Scots; B.Webster Higden's Britain; P.Brown 'National' Requisitioning for 'Public' Use of 'Private' Castles in Pre-Nation State France; C.Coulson The Trojan Origins of the French: The Commencement of a Myth's Demise, 1450-1520; E.A.R.Brown The Invention of Rus(sia)(s): Some Remarks on Medieval and Modern Perceptions of Continuity and Discontinuity; S.Franklin Civic Pride versus Feelings for Italy in the Age of Dante; T.Hankey The Notion of Lombard and Lombardy in the Middle Ages; D.Zancani European Nationality, Race, and Commonwealth in the Writings of Sir Francis Palgrave, 1788-1861; R.Smith Index

Editorial Reviews

Combs through the literature and history to trace the origins of European ethnic groups, many of which either developed into the modern nations or have persevered as minorities. For such peoples as the Welsh, Scots, Russians, Italians, and Spanish, looks for evidence that they saw themselves as a separate group and at their reinvention of their origins and histories to bolster their self-image. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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