Crossing Conquests: Literary Culture in Eleventh-Century England

The 11th century was a period of dramatic change in England. The marriage of Æthelred the 'Unready' to Emma of Normandy, Cnut's Danish Conquest, the Norman Conquest, William the Conqueror's Domesday Book and, in 1100, the marriage of Henry I to the Anglo-Saxon princess, Edith, all stand out as pivotal events in English history. However, while recent scholarship has re-shaped our understanding of the socio-political history of the period, its literary history has been neglected. The aim of this project is to redress this neglect through interdisciplinary study.

There are a number of reasons for the neglect of 11th-century literary culture. One is institutional and disciplinary: 11th-century England was a multilingual (and therefore multicultural) society, with English, Norse, French and Latin all spoken and used for literary composition, in contact with Welsh, Irish and Flemish; but often the study of these languages and literatures has been undertaken in relative isolation, by scholars in different fields. Similarly, 11th-century literary culture does not sit easily with the post-Romantic notion of 'literature', and, thus, literary scholars, linguists, historians, and art historians must join forces. Periodization is also a factor: traditionally, Anglo-Saxon literature is held to have peaked around 1000 (the date of the Beowulf manuscript), while Anglo-Norman literature is held to begin not before the 12th century, and Middle English not before the 13th.

The literary history of the 11th century, then, has slipped through the net; and yet the 11th century was a vibrant period of literary creativity in England, across the many languages which political events brought into contact. This creativity is evident in the continued precocious use of English as a written language and the distinctive use of both English and Latin in administration, and in the re-vitalization of hagiography, the emergence of new forms of court literature in Norse and Latin, the spread of new scientific knowledge, the greater participation of women in literary culture, the presence of French speakers in elite circles, and changes to the conservative conventions of Old English poetry. The 11th century in England was, moreover, the great century for the production of vernacular manuscripts: 70% of the extant Old English manuscripts date to the period.

This project will advance thinking about 11th-century English literary culture through five workshops and a postgraduate day-conference by addressing certain central questions: What was the nature of literary culture in 11th-century England? What kinds of literature were being composed, copied, read and heard? In what languages, and in what contexts? Who were the patrons, producers, recipients and other users of literary culture? What influences were being exerted upon and by 11th-century literature in England? In what ways did developments in England connect with those on the Continent?

Participation in these workshops will include a core of scholars (some in the early stages of their careers) from a variety of disciplines and institutions, plus distinguished experts, some from North America. The workshops will enable thinking on the literary culture of the period to develop faster, and freer of institutional barriers, than would otherwise be possible. Their effects will be disseminated through the activities, publications, and, it is intended, subsequent collaboration of the participants. The workshops will be followed by a day-conference for MA and PhD students, which will open up the possibilities of 11th-century literary studies to the next generation of researchers - thus ensuring that the project will have a wide academic outreach and impact on Anglo-Saxon and Medieval English literary studies in the future.