Towards a Literary History of Old English Prose

Medieval Literatures seminar 

Between the ninth and eleventh centuries, the nascent kingdom of England produced an astonishingly diverse corpus of vernacular prose, ranging from homilies, laws, letters and wills to biblical translations, philosophy, histories, travel narratives and even romance. Yet when compared to the much smaller corpus of vernacular poetry copied in this period, Old English prose remains a relatively neglected subject. This lecture will foreground the richness and diversity of Old English prose writing, exploring its role in the emergence of Engla lond as an ‘imagined community’ or nation in the long tenth century.