Profile

Biography

Elizabeth Tyler is the author of articles and a monograph on the style of Old English poetry, the historicity of Old English poetry, and history-writing in high medieval Europe. She initiated and is general editor of an innovative Brepols series, Studies in the Early Middle Ages for which she is preparing a collection of essays entitled Conceptualizing Multilingualism in England, 800-1250.

Her research and teaching interests are interdisciplinary, ranging from late Anglo-Saxon and post-Conquest literary culture to early and high medieval historiography. Her work emphasizes the international nature of English literature well before the Conquest, and draws attention to the key role England plays in the flourishing of European literary culture in the High Middle Ages.

She is the author of Old English Poetics: The Aesthetics of the Familiar in Anglo-Saxon England (2006) and is completing a book England in Europe: Women, Multilingualism and Patronage in the Eleventh Century.

Research

Overview

My general interests are in the literary culture of England from the end of the 9th to the 12th century: that is from the time of Alfred the Great to the time of William of Malmesbury and Geoffrey of Monmouth. In particular, I am interested in poetry and history-writing in Old English and Latin during this period. My research is situated at the intersection of literary study with intellectual, social and political history. In a series of articles and a monograph, I have been concerned with the development of notions of 'fiction' and 'history', the social role of poetry, orality and literacy, the role women and courts played in high medieval literary culture, continuities across the Conquest, connections with the Continent, and the multilingual nature of the literature of England. My work stresses the international nature of English literature (including historiography) well before the Conquest, and draws attention to the key role England plays in the flourishing of European literary culture in the High Middle Ages.

Current projects

I am currently completing a monograph, England in Europe: Women, Multilingualism and Patronage in the Eleventh Century, and editing a volume of essays entitled Conceptualizing Multilingualism in England, 800-1250. My study of Old English poetry, Old English Poetics: The Aesthetics of the Familiar in Anglo-Saxon England, appeared in 2006.

Research group(s)

With Matthew Townend, I co-organize the Late Anglo-Saxon Research Group at the Centre for Medieval Studies and we are running a series of AHRC funded workshops on 'Crossing Conquests: Literary Culture in Eleventh-Century England'.

Supervision

I am interested in supervising research in the study of late Anglo-Saxon and twelfth-century England. Current and past PhD topics supervised include: motherhood in late Anglo-Saxon England, Bede and the dress of the holy, lay male sanctity in twelfth-century England, Anglo-Saxon literacy at Worcester, names for God in Old English verse and Old English poetry, the Benedictine Reform, friendship in late Anglo-Saxon England and the outsider in Anglo-Saxon literature.

Publications

Selected publications

• 'How Deliberate is Deliberate Verbal Repetition' in Studies in English Language and Literature: 'Doubt Wisely': Papers in Honour of E.G. Stanley, eds M.J. Toswell and E.M. Tyler (London, 1996), pp. 508-30.
• 'The Eyes of the Beholders were Dazzled': Treasure and Artifice in Encomium Emmae Reginae', Early Medieval Europe (8)1999: 247-70.
• 'Fictions of Family: The Encomium Emmae Reginae and Vergil's Aeneid', Viator 36 (2005), 149-79.
• 'Talking about History in Eleventh-Century England: the Encomium Emmae Reginae and the Court of Harthacnut', Early Medieval Europe 13 (2005), 359-83.
• Narrative and History in the Early Medieval West, edited with Rossano Balzaretti (Turnhout, 2006)
• 'Poetics and the Past: Making History with Old English Poetry', in Narrative and History (see previous).
• Old English Poetics: The Aesthetics of the Familiar in late Anglo-Saxon England (Woodbridge, 2006).
• 'Crossing Conquests: Polyglot Royal Women and Literary Culture in Eleventh-Century England', in Conceptualizing Mutlilingualism in England, 800-1250, ed. Elizabeth M. Tyler (Turnhout, 2009).
• ‘From Old English to Old French’, in The French of England, eds David Trotter, Jocelyn Wogan-Browne, York Medieval Press (Woodbridge, 2009).
• ‘The Royal Court’ with Julia Boffey, in Oxford Handbook of Medieval Literature, eds Elaine Treharne and Greg Walker (Oxford, 2010).
• ‘The Vita Ædwardi: The Politics of Poetry at Wilton Abbey’. Anglo-Norman Studies. Forthcoming.
• ‘Trojans in Anglo-Saxon England: Precedent without Descent’ in Review of English Studies. Forthcoming.

External activities

Memberships

• I am an Advisory Board member, for the WUN (Worldwide Universities Network), Multilingualism in the Middle Ages Project. 2005-2008

Editorial duties

• I am general editor of 'Studies in the Early Middles Ages' a series published by Brepols (Turnhout, Belgium)
• I am a review editor for 'The Medieval Review' (based at the University of Western Michigan): www.hti.umich.edu/t/tmr/