Language and Community in Early England Imagining Distance in Medieval Literature |
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| Author:
| Butler, Emily |
| ISBN: | 978-1-317-19690-7 |
| Publication Date: | Apr 2017 |
| Publisher: | Taylor & Francis Group
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| Imprint: | Routledge |
| Book Format: | Digital (delivered electronically) |
| List Price: | USD $48.95 |
Book Description:
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This book examines the development of English as a written vernacular and identifies it as a process of community building that occurred in a multilingual context. Moving from the 8th-13th centuries, to the 16th-century antiquarians who collected medieval manuscripts, it suggests that this period in the history of English can only be understood if we loosen insistence on a sharp divide between Old and Middle English and place the textuality in the framework of a multilingual matrix....
More Description
This book examines the development of English as a written vernacular and identifies it as a process of community building that occurred in a multilingual context. Moving from the 8th-13th centuries, to the 16th-century antiquarians who collected medieval manuscripts, it suggests that this period in the history of English can only be understood if we loosen insistence on a sharp divide between Old and Middle English and place the textuality in the framework of a multilingual matrix. It argues that the tension of linguistic distance provides necessary energy for the community-building activities of annotation and glossing, translation, compilation, and other uses of texts and manuscripts.