Inland Waters and Archipelagic Identity in Middle English Romance

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My doctoral project will investigate the various significations of water in Middle English romance, specifically fresh and "boggy" water. I am specifically interested in the way water is a vector through which medieval authors explored the cultural interactions between the solidifying English state and the Celtic (Norse, French, etc.) margins. I will survey a wide range of Middle English texts, as well as poems in Old French, Anglo-Norman, and various Celtic languages, reading them through an ecocritical and post-/proto-colonial lens. I will also bring gothic theories of abjection to bear upon these "boggy" literatures, and endeavour to develop a bog theory of medieval archipelagic literature which mires divisions in matter, space, gender, and temporality.