Fiction and History in England, 1066-1200 (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780521174367)

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.

Author: Laura Ashe
ISBN-10: 0521174368
ISBN-13: 9780521174367
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Language: English
Published: 03/03/2011
Pages: 260
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.90lbs
Size: 8.90h x 6.00w x 0.70d