2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
Middle English literature in the fringes of the British Isles
| Project/Area Number |
15K02327
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Multi-year Fund |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Literature in English
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| Research Institution | Kansai University |
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Principal Investigator |
Wada Yoko 関西大学, 外国語学部, 教授 (00123547)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2015-04-01 – 2020-03-31
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| Keywords | Middle English / fringes / Latin / French / MS Harley 913 / Ireland / Fransiscans / history |
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| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
Quite a number of Middle English works have not been properly appreciated or fully studied in large part because they were composed in the peripheral areas of the British Isles such as the Welsh marches or the Irish Pale. The present study demonstrates that works of this category, such as those preserved in London, British Library, MS Harley 913, have considerable literary and historical value. Transcribed by a single scribe in Ireland around 1330, the Harley works, both prose and poetry, are written in English, Latin and French, and they cover a remarkable variety of genres: religious poems,Franciscan documents, political songs of historical importance, scurrilous satire, and so on. Moreover, despite being written in three different languages, these works are interrelated in content and tone, so that only by being studied as part of a cohesive whole can the full significance of the Harley Middle English works be understood.
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| Free Research Field |
英語英文学
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| Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements |
中世英文学研究において優れた作品であっても、イングランド以外の地域で生まれたという理由で、ほとんど研究対象とされてこなかった作品が少なくない。1330年頃アイルランドで筆写されたLondon, British Library, MS Harley 913に収録されている、英語、ラテン語、フランス語による作品群を典型例として、文学的価値の高さと歴史資料としての意義の大きさを明らかにした。そして、そこで使用されている３言語による作品は互いに関連しており、作品群全体のコンテキストの中で、英語の作品を解釈することが重要であることも示した。こうしたアプローチの重要性を、この写本を具体例として知らしめた。
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