Author : Laura Ashe
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780521174367
Total Pages : 260 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (743 download)
Book Synopsis Fiction and History in England, 1066-1200 by : Laura Ashe
Download or read book Fiction and History in England, 1066-1200 written by Laura Ashe and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2011-03-03 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The century and a half following the Norman Conquest of 1066 saw an explosion in the writing of Latin and vernacular history in England, while the creation of the romance genre reinvented the fictional narrative. Where critics have seen these developments as part of a cross-Channel phenomenon, Laura Ashe argues that a genuinely distinctive character can be found in the writings of England during the period. Drawing on a wide range of historical, legal and cultural contexts, she discusses how writers addressed the Conquest and rebuilt their sense of identity as a new, united 'English' people, with their own national literature and culture, in a manner which was to influence all subsequent medieval English literature. This study opens up new ways of reading post-Conquest texts in relation to developments in political and legal history, and in terms of their place in the English Middle Ages as a whole.