Living Through Conquest: The Politics of Early English, 1020-1220 (Oxford Textual Perspectives) - Softcover

Treharne, Elaine

4.38

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9780199585267: Living Through Conquest: The Politics of Early English, 1020-1220 (Oxford Textual Perspectives)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0199585261 ISBN 13: 9780199585267

Publisher: Oxford University Press, U.S.A., 2012

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Oxford Textual Perspectives is a new series of informative and provocative studies focused upon literary texts (conceived of in the broadest sense of that term) and the technologies, cultures and communities that produce, inform, and receive them. It provides fresh interpretations of fundamental works and of the vital and challenging issues emerging in English literary studies. By engaging with the materiality of the literary text, its production, and reception history, and frequently testing and exploring the boundaries of the notion of text itself, the volumes in the series question familiar frameworks and provide innovative interpretations of both canonical and less well-known works. 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. English became the language of choice of a usurper king; the language of collective endeavour for preachers and prelates; and the language of resistance and negotiation in the post-Conquest period. Analysing texts that are not widely known, such as Cnut's two Letters to the English of 1020 and 1027, Worcester's Confraternity Agreement, and the Eadwine Psalter, alongside canonical writers like AElfric and Wulfstan, Elaine Treharne demonstrates the ideological significance of the native vernacular and its social and cultural relevance alongside Latin, and later, French. While many scholars to date have seen the period from 1060 to 1220 as a literary lacuna as far as English is concerned, this book demonstrates unequivocally that the hundreds of vernacular works surviving from this period attest to a lively and rich textual tradition. Living Through Conquest addresses the political concerns of English writers and

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Review:

The politics of Early English mentioned in the subtitle of the book are thus brilliantly interwoven into a multifaceted analysis ... The book is a must read for all Anglo-Saxonists and especially those scholars who are still convinced that English texts written after the Norman Conquest are not significant. (Journal of English and Germanic Philology)

Living Through Conquest is an inspiring book and, with her multifaceted approach that takes into account the historical, cultural and material context of a variety of lesser-known texts, Treharne sets an example for future research. (Thijs Porck, English Studies)

a groundbreaking study of the continuing influence of English in late Old English and early Anglo-Norman ... this is certainly a book that should be read by everyone teaching the history of English or studying it at an advanced level. (E.L. Battistella, Choice)

Elaine Treharne has done more than anyone to put the twelfth century back into English literary history ... an exceptionally important and timely book. (Mark Faulkner, Review of English Studies)

About the Author:

Elaine Treharne is Professor of Early English at Florida State University and Visiting Professor of Medieval Literature at the University of Leicester. She is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and of the Royal Historical Society, and a Trustee of the English Association. She is series editor of the English Association's Essays and Studies, and series editor, with Greg Walker, of Oxford Textual Perspectives. She is Medieval Editor for Review of English Studies, Literature Compass, and the Year's Work in English Studies. She is currently working on a detailed study of the fleshy materiality of the medieval book from 500 to 1500AD (The Sensual Book), and the emphasis on the medieval in the work of William Morris, Eric Gill, Edward Johnston and David Jones (From Arts and Crafts to Modernism: Beauty and the Book, 1891-1940).

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