Conceptualising national identity in late twelfth-century chansons de geste composed in French
<p>This thesis challenges previous perceptions about national identity by dissolving the usual boundaries in which literary scholars and critics operate. It contends that the emergence and dynamic reconfiguration of national identity permeates a group of concepts which combine and reformulate...
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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2022
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| _version_ | 1826311656297201664 |
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| author | Goodwin, E |
| author2 | Skoda, H |
| author_facet | Skoda, H Goodwin, E |
| author_sort | Goodwin, E |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | <p>This thesis challenges previous perceptions about national identity by dissolving the usual boundaries in which literary scholars and critics operate. It contends that the emergence and dynamic reconfiguration of national identity permeates a group of concepts which combine and reformulate themselves within intricate systems of lexical patterns entwined in the text, rather than being confined to a single concept.</p>
<p>Such patterns related to the process of national identity are examined across a corpus of chanson de geste poems taken from the Matter of France which date from around the end of the twelfth century. The corpus comprises Aliscans, La Chanson d’Antioche, La Chanson d’Aspremont, La Chanson des Saisnes and Raoul de Cambrai.</p>
<p>From the beginning of vernacular French literature, terms which one would translate as ‘France’, ‘the French’ and ‘French-ness’ predominantly relate to abstract identity concepts rather than purely geographical ones. The term ‘abstract’ designates lexemes with a shifting, fluid quality which ask for active concretization by a given reader or listener, but also cue his or her concretization in a potentially deliberate way. The analysis thus informs a revised notion of national identity as an imagined community emerging over patterns of language use. The chosen methodology and analytical toolkit opens up a new way of exploring these aspects of the texts.</p>
<p>Chapter 1 explores the question of French national identity at a key juncture in the development of ideas of ‘French-ness’. Chapter 2 investigates how France relates to national identity. This examination includes geographical and political aspects which comprise identity, memory, and territory in the reader’s concretizations of individual instances of language use. Chapter 3 considers who and what is ‘French’ in the corpus and the complexity and non-linearity of the French and ‘French-ness’.</p>
<p>The methodology used in this thesis uses a hybrid approach to textual analysis: data is extracted and then subjected to painstaking philological work, complemented by quantitative analysis in an original way. The interpretation of results is informed by insights from existing scholarship and engages in a productive dialogue with this research, which tends to discuss national identity with respect to much later periods. This dissertation indicates that national identities are already being formed in the late twelfth century.</p> |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T08:12:59Z |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oxford-uuid:abb2ec17-87a8-4e8c-b5ce-0ce23f77dce9 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T08:12:59Z |
| publishDate | 2022 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:abb2ec17-87a8-4e8c-b5ce-0ce23f77dce92023-12-04T18:06:06ZConceptualising national identity in late twelfth-century chansons de geste composed in FrenchThesishttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_db06uuid:abb2ec17-87a8-4e8c-b5ce-0ce23f77dce9EnglishHyrax Deposit2022Goodwin, ESkoda, H<p>This thesis challenges previous perceptions about national identity by dissolving the usual boundaries in which literary scholars and critics operate. It contends that the emergence and dynamic reconfiguration of national identity permeates a group of concepts which combine and reformulate themselves within intricate systems of lexical patterns entwined in the text, rather than being confined to a single concept.</p> <p>Such patterns related to the process of national identity are examined across a corpus of chanson de geste poems taken from the Matter of France which date from around the end of the twelfth century. The corpus comprises Aliscans, La Chanson d’Antioche, La Chanson d’Aspremont, La Chanson des Saisnes and Raoul de Cambrai.</p> <p>From the beginning of vernacular French literature, terms which one would translate as ‘France’, ‘the French’ and ‘French-ness’ predominantly relate to abstract identity concepts rather than purely geographical ones. The term ‘abstract’ designates lexemes with a shifting, fluid quality which ask for active concretization by a given reader or listener, but also cue his or her concretization in a potentially deliberate way. The analysis thus informs a revised notion of national identity as an imagined community emerging over patterns of language use. The chosen methodology and analytical toolkit opens up a new way of exploring these aspects of the texts.</p> <p>Chapter 1 explores the question of French national identity at a key juncture in the development of ideas of ‘French-ness’. Chapter 2 investigates how France relates to national identity. This examination includes geographical and political aspects which comprise identity, memory, and territory in the reader’s concretizations of individual instances of language use. Chapter 3 considers who and what is ‘French’ in the corpus and the complexity and non-linearity of the French and ‘French-ness’.</p> <p>The methodology used in this thesis uses a hybrid approach to textual analysis: data is extracted and then subjected to painstaking philological work, complemented by quantitative analysis in an original way. The interpretation of results is informed by insights from existing scholarship and engages in a productive dialogue with this research, which tends to discuss national identity with respect to much later periods. This dissertation indicates that national identities are already being formed in the late twelfth century.</p> |
| spellingShingle | Goodwin, E Conceptualising national identity in late twelfth-century chansons de geste composed in French |
| title | Conceptualising national identity in late twelfth-century chansons de geste composed in French |
| title_full | Conceptualising national identity in late twelfth-century chansons de geste composed in French |
| title_fullStr | Conceptualising national identity in late twelfth-century chansons de geste composed in French |
| title_full_unstemmed | Conceptualising national identity in late twelfth-century chansons de geste composed in French |
| title_short | Conceptualising national identity in late twelfth-century chansons de geste composed in French |
| title_sort | conceptualising national identity in late twelfth century chansons de geste composed in french |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT goodwine conceptualisingnationalidentityinlatetwelfthcenturychansonsdegestecomposedinfrench |