Imagined Communities: Constructing Collective Identities in Medieval Europe

Description

"Imagined Communities: Constructing Collective Identities in Medieval Europe" offers a series of studies focusing on the problems of conceptualisation of social group identities, including national, royal, aristocratic, regional, urban, religious, and gendered communities. The geographical focus of the case studies presented in this volume range from Wales and Scotland, to Hungary and Ruthenia, while both narrative and other types of evidence, such as legal texts, are drawn upon. What emerges is how the characteristics and aspirations of communities are exemplified and legitimised through the presentation of the past and an imagined picture of present. By means of its multiple perspectives, this volume offers significant insight into the medieval dynamics of collective mentality and group consciousness. List of Illustrations. p. viii List of Contributors. p. ix Introduction. p. 1 Genealogical Fictions and Chronicle Writing in Central East Europe in the 11th-13th Centuries / Bagi, Dániel. p. 15-29 Strategies of Creating Dynastic Identity in Central Europe in the 10th-11th Centuries / Dalewski, Zbigniew. p. 30-45 'Rex imperator in regno suo' - An Ideology of Frenchness? Late Medieval France, Its Political Elite and Juridical Discourse / Jostkleigrewe, Georg. p. 46-83 The King and the Saint against the Scots: The Shaping of English National Identity in the 12th Century Narrative of King Athelstan's Victory over His Northern Neighbours / Tarczynski, Tomasz. p. 85-102 Objects, Places, and Space in the Process of Constructing Monastic Identities: A Few Examples from the 10th, 11th and 12th Centuries / Tomaszek, Michal. p. 103-125 The Law as an Element Organizing and Identifying a Community in the Narratives of the Origins of the Kingdoms of Britain, (Geoffrey of Monmouth, "Historia Region Brittaniae", John of Fordun, "Chronica Gentis Scottorum") / Klusek, Bartosz. p. 127-143 Creating the Past and Shaping Identity - Angevin Dynastic Legend ("Gesta consilium Andegavorum") / Szejgiec, Karol. p. 144-153 Creating Knightly Identities? Scottish Lords and Their Leaders in the Narratives about Great Moments in Community History (between John Barbour's "The Bruce" and Blind Hary's "Wallace") / Michalski, Wojciech. p. 154-178 People and Boyars in the Old Russian Chronicles of the 11th-13th Centuries: Narrative Modelling of Social Identities / Vilkul, Tatiana. p. 179-203 The Identity of Self-Govcrning Groups (Guilds and Communes) in Middle Ages and Their Collective Identity / Pleszczynski, Andrzej. p. 204-221 The Conceptualisation of Men and Women by the Authors of Penitentials / Tyszka, Przemyslaw. p. 222-245 A Surfeit of Identity? Regional Solidarities, Welsh Identity and Idea of Britain / Roberts, Euryn Rhys. p. 247-278 Region as a Fluid Social Construct in Medieval Central Europe (11th-15th C.) / Wiszewski, Przemyslaw. p. 279-292 The Shaping of Post-barbarian Identity: The Example of Pomerania in the 11th-12th Century / Rosik, Stanislaw. p. 293-303 Kievan and Galician-Volodimir Chronicles in the 12th and 13th Centuries: The Ruthenian Ethnos and Foreign People / Bartnicki, Mariusz. p. 305-321 Czechs and Germans: Nationals and Foreigners in the Work of Czech Chroniclers: from Cosmas of Prague (12th Century) to the Chronicle of the So-called Dalimil (14th Century) / Sobiesiak, Joanna A. p. 322-334 Corporative Interests Versus Nationalism: Prague University at the Turn of the 15th Century / Nodl, Martin. p. 335-363 The Imagined Communities of Heretics: Constructing the Identity of the Religious Enemy in the Late Middle Ages / Kras, Pawel. p. 364-387 Index of Historical and Fictional Persons. p. 389