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IMC 2014: Sessions

Session 1327: Politics and Texts in Late Carolingian Europe, IV

Wednesday 9 July 2014, 16.30-18.00

Sponsor:Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Exeter / St Andrews Institute of Mediaeval Studies, University of St Andrews
Organiser:Levi Roach, Department of History, University of Exeter
Moderator/Chair:Edward Roberts, St Andrews Institute of Mediaeval Studies, University of St Andrews
Paper 1327-aWho Saved the Young Queen?: The Escape of Adelaide from Rosvita to Donizo
(Language: English)
Tiziana Lazzari, Dipartimento di Storia Culture Civiltà, Università di Bologna
Index terms: Historiography - Medieval, Politics and Diplomacy
Paper 1327-bNorman Ethnogenesis: Politics and Narrative Strategies behind the Mythical Accounts on the Origins of the Normans from Dudo of St Quentin to the Southern Italian Chronicles
(Language: English)
Rosa Canosa, Dipartimento di Studi storici, Università di San Marino
Index terms: Historiography - Medieval, Mentalities, Political Thought
Paper 1327-cThe Familial, Political, and Military Networks of Edmund II Ironside
(Language: English)
David McDermott, Department of History, University of Winchester
Index terms: Military History, Politics and Diplomacy
Abstract

In recent years, there has been substantial re-evaluation of traditional methodological approaches to medieval texts, from narrative histories to documentary sources. Historians have increasingly taken stock of the interdependence of textual aspects such as audience, reception, dissemination, authorial agenda and the relationships between cultural and political elites. This reappraisal has inspired renewed interest in earlier Carolingian political history. However, the so-called 'post-Carolingian' world of the 10th century has yet to be thoroughly investigated on the same terms. How did texts produced in the late 9th- and 10th-century political climate differ from those of the preceding century? Is it possible to refashion the traditional political narrative of late Carolingian fragmentation and decline by reassessing the foundations on which this very narrative has been constructed? Our intention is to draw together recent work on the theme of political discourse in the written sources of this period.