Cross-cutural contacts as evidenced in medieval English literature

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 22520279
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Literature in English
• Research Institution: Kansai University
• Principal Investigator: WADA YOKO 関西大学, 外国語学部, 教授 (00123547)
• Project Period (FY): 2010-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 中世英文学 / アイルランド / 中英語 / ラテン語 / フランス語 / 写本 / MS Harley 913

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Medieval English literature has been studied, in most cases, on the assumption that the literature was produced in England. However, many works were composed in the neighboring areas of the British Isles, notably, Scotland, Wale and Ireland; for that reason, they have not received the full attention they deserve. A particular example of this neglect is a scholarship of London, British Library, MS Harley 913. The manuscript written by a scribe in about 1330 in Ireland contains satires and parodies as well as serious religious verse and prose in Latin, English and French, the three languages current in medieval England. To remedy this I have systematically attempted an interpretative re-appraisal of English poems in the manuscript, taking into account the religious and political circumstances in which they were composed in medieval Ireland. My findings not only help us understand the poems better but also the nature of the manuscript as miscellany which is not understood up to now.

Free Research Field

中世英語英文学