Literacy and Identity in Early Medieval Ireland

Erscheinungsjahr 2013
ISBN: 978-1-84383-855-5
Verlag: Boydell & Brewer

Buch, Englisch, Band 33, 248 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 241 mm, Gewicht: 558 g

Reihe: Studies in Celtic History

The first comprehensive survey of the Irish literary elite in the early middle ages.

Winner of the 2015 NUI Irish Historical Research Prize.

Much of our knowledge of early medieval Ireland comes from a rich literature written in a variety of genres and in two languages, Irish and Latin. Who wrote this literature and what role did they play within society? What did the introduction and expansion of literacy mean in a culture where the vast majority of the population continued to be non-literate? How did literacy operate in and intersect with the oral world? Was literacy a key element in the formation and articulation of communal and elite senses of identity?
This book addresses these issues in the first full, inter-disciplinary examination of the Irish literate elite and their social contexts between ca. 400-1000 AD. It considers the role played by Hiberno-Latin authors, the expansion of vernacular literacy and the key place of monasteries within the literate landscape. Also examined are the crucial intersections between literacy and orality, which underpin the importance played by the literate elite in giving voice to aristocratic and communal identities. This study places these developments within a broader European context, underlining the significance of the Irish experience of learning and literacy.

Elva Johnston is lecturer in the School of History and Archives, University College Dublin.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Johnston, Elva

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Englische Literatur Irische Literatur
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Klassische Literaturwissenschaft Mittel- & Neulateinische Literatur
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literatursoziologie, Gender Studies
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturgeschichte und Literaturkritik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Irish Literacy in a Late Antique Context
The Island and the World: Irish Responses to Literacy c. 600-850
The Island as the World: Community and Identity c. 750-950
Changing Patterns of Monastic Literacy c. 800-1000
Circuits of Learning and Literature c. 700-1000
Literacy, Orality and Identity: The Secondary-Oral Context
Appendix: The Chronicles as a Record of Literacy, 797-1002
Bibliography

Über Autor(innen)

Elva Johnston is lecturer in the School of History and Archives, University College Dublin.