Crossing Conquests: Literary Culture in Eleventh-Century England

11世纪是英国发生巨变的时期。Æthelred“未准备好”与诺曼底艾玛的婚姻，克努特的丹麦征服，诺曼征服，征服者威廉的《末日审判书》，以及1100年亨利一世与盎格鲁-撒克逊公主伊迪丝的婚姻，都是英国历史上的关键事件。然而，尽管最近的学术研究重塑了我们对这一时期社会政治史的理解，但它的文学史却被忽视了。这个项目的目的是通过跨学科的研究来纠正这种忽视。忽视11世纪文学文化的原因有很多。其一是制度和学科：11世纪的英格兰是一个多语言（因此也是多元文化）的社会，英语、挪威语、法语和拉丁语都被用于文学创作，与威尔士语、爱尔兰语和佛兰德语有联系；但是，对这些语言和文学的研究往往是由不同领域的学者相对孤立地进行的。同样，11世纪的文学文化也不容易与后浪漫主义的“文学”概念相一致，因此，文学学者、语言学家、历史学家和艺术史学家必须联合起来。分期也是一个因素：传统上，盎格鲁-撒克逊文学被认为在1000年左右达到顶峰（贝奥武夫手稿的日期），而盎格鲁-诺曼文学被认为在12世纪之前开始，中世纪英语在13世纪之前开始。那么，11世纪的文学史就从网上溜了出去；然而，11世纪是英国文学创作的活跃时期，政治事件带来了多种语言的接触。这种创造性体现在以下几个方面：英语作为书面语言的持续早熟使用，英语和拉丁语在行政管理中的独特使用，圣徒传记的复兴，挪威语和拉丁语宫廷文学新形式的出现，新科学知识的传播，女性在文学文化中的更多参与，精英圈中讲法语的人的存在，以及古英语诗歌保守习俗的改变。此外，11世纪是英国本土手稿生产的伟大世纪：现存的古英语手稿中有70%可以追溯到这一时期。这个项目将通过五个研讨会和一个研究生日会议来推进对11世纪英国文学文化的思考，解决一些核心问题：11世纪英国文学文化的本质是什么？什么样的文学作品被创作、复制、阅读和听到？用什么语言，在什么环境下？谁是文学文化的赞助人、生产者、接受者和其他使用者？11世纪的英国文学受到了什么影响？英国的发展与欧洲大陆的发展有哪些联系？这些研讨会的参与者将包括来自不同学科和机构的核心学者（其中一些还处于职业生涯的早期阶段），以及一些来自北美的杰出专家。这些研讨会将使对这一时期文学文化的思考发展得更快，更不受制度障碍的限制。它们的影响将通过活动、出版物以及有意通过参与者随后的合作来传播。研讨会之后将为硕士生和博士生举行为期一天的会议，这将为下一代研究人员开辟11世纪文学研究的可能性，从而确保该项目将在未来对盎格鲁-撒克逊和中世纪英语文学研究产生广泛的学术推广和影响。

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.