IMC 2008: Sessions
Session 1020: Englishness and the Sea, I: Writings in Old English
Wednesday 9 July 2008, 09.00-10.30
Organiser: | Sebastian Sobecki, Department of English, McGill University, Québec |
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Moderator/Chair: | Clare A. Lees, Department of English Language & Literature, King's College London |
Paper 1020-a | Unstable Spaces: Imagining Sea Tides in Early Medieval England (Language: English) Index terms: Geography and Settlement Studies, Language and Literature - Old English, Language and Literature - Latin |
Paper 1020-b | Ne me herestræta | ofer cald wæter cuðe sindon (Andreas 200b-201): Treading the Sea Roads in Old English Accounts of Migrations and Sea Journeys (Language: English) Index terms: Geography and Settlement Studies, Historiography - Medieval, Language and Literature - Old English, Mentalities |
Paper 1020-c | Endless Resistance: The Everchanging Sea in the Exeter Book Riddles (Language: English) Index terms: Daily Life, Language and Literature - Old English, Mentalities, Theology |
Abstract | Geographically and culturally, the sea 'defines' Britain as well as a large part of England. But whilst Prospero's elemental mastery over water and his subjugation of Caliban express an insular understanding of Englishness that embraces both land and sea, many premodern texts appear to resist such integrative readings. For the most part, today's scholarly literature is content with making assumptions about the sea's cultural role. These two sessions, concerned with writings before and after the Norman Conquest, explore the sea's contribution to changing models of Englishness and their at times unfixed insularity. |