Finding the Right Words

Sciacca, Claudia Di

doi:10.3138/9781442688117

Cited by 79 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…43 This can be seen most clearly in Isidore's Etymologies, but a number of his other writings were also intended to enable his readers to understand and manipulate language successfully. 44 That the Isidorian "project" was by no means neutral in design but was supposed to have practical moral effects and to reinforce the social and political order can be seen most clearly in the fact that many of its key texts were highly normative in nature, seeking to "fix" knowledge in place and to lay down guidelines and ground rules for the proper functioning of society, church and individual spirituality. The work of Isidore and the bishops who succeeded him within the ecclesiastical leadership of seventh century Spain seems to have been carried out with the explicit support of the Visigothic monarchy.…”

Section: Visigothic Spain 33mentioning

confidence: 99%

New Directions in the Study of Visigothic Spain

Wood

Jiménez

2016

History Compass

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Since the fall of the Visigothic kingdom in 711, analysis of its history has been tied to contemporary Spanish politics. Political and economic developments in Spain since the 1970s have driven research into the late antique and early medieval period. Most notably, archaeological evidence has come to play a much more prominent role in analyses of the Visigothic period in Spain. This article synthesises archaeological and historical research from the past 20 years. It draws on recent developments in urban and rural archaeology in order to examine key avenues of research on the period: the negotiated nature of power, post-Roman identity politics, and law and literacy.In recent decades, there has been a burgeoning interest in the study of late antique and early medieval Spanish history. A number of factors have contributed to this development: the collapse of the Franco regime and its teleological and single-purpose historiographical discourse, a higher degree of collaboration between Spanish and non-Spanish scholars, which has broken the 'language barrier' that in the past hindered interactions between Spanish academia and other scholarly traditions 1 and the large amount of material obtained from the boom in commercial archaeology in the 1990s and early 2000s. The main objective of this article is to sketch brief ly some of the current themes in Visigothic studies, from historical and archaeological perspectives, citing many of the main scholars, publications and research projects of the past 20 years (since 1995). Although traditional scholarship has traced the origins of Spain to the Visigothic period, current approaches to the topic generally seek to move away from this monolithic view. Key trends in this movement away from this singular vision of the Visigothic period are the creation and interaction of central and local powers (and the methodologies by which these can be identified), the nature of power relationships and identity (or, more accurately, identities).The breakdown of the Roman system is the key starting point for understanding a Visigothic period (mid-fifth to early eighth century) characterised by the emergence of a series of new power structures and relationships. Historical studies of the Visigothic period in Spain have traditionally been framed in terms of binaries of power. The dominant paradigms were of underlying tension often exploding into open conf lict between royalty and aristocracy, between church and state, between Goths and Romans and between Nicene ('Catholic', 'orthodox') Christians and all kinds of 'deviant' groups ( Jews, 'Arians'). These oppositions used to dominate conceptualisations of the Spanish political, social and religious landscape after the end of the Western Roman Empire and, more recently, scholarship has begun to reveal, are the result of scholars' uncritical acceptance of royal and ecclesiastical sources written from a 'centre-ist' perspective.2 Churchmen such as Isidore of Seville, the seventh century bishops of Toledo and the Visigothic royal laws pres...

show abstract

Section: Visigothic Spain 33mentioning

confidence: 99%

New Directions in the Study of Visigothic Spain

Wood

Jiménez

2016

History Compass

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

The Formula Reformulated: Sellic Spell and The Hobbit

Fox

2020

Following the Formula in Beowulf, Örvar-Odds Saga, and Tolkien

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Old English Pharaoh: A Neglected ubi sunt Poem

Rozano-García

2023

Neophilologus

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Old English poem Pharaoh has been largely unconsidered in critical literature owing to its formal and interpretive obscurities, which have led to its relegation to a secondary place in the Old English poetic canon. The text has traditionally been read as an unsuccessful attempt at replicating Latin models of dialogic literature to invite reflection on the typological associations of the crossing of the Red Sea. It has accordingly been read almost exclusively as part of an Easter sequence within the Exeter Book. As a result, the poem has remained unexplored in terms of its artistic quality and potential intertextual connections with other texts and traditions within and beyond the corpus of Old English poetry. This study reassesses the form, function, and interpretation of Pharaoh and provides a new reading of the poem by relocating it within its appropriate contextual background in both Christian doctrine and the Old English poetic corpus. To this end, a new reconstruction of a textual crux is proposed, which reveals that Pharaoh should be read against a new interpretive framework. Drawing from textual parallels in Latin and Old English, this study suggests that Pharaoh is an experiment in textual form and poetic mode that draws inspiration from the common ubi sunt motif and its vernacular adaptation in Old English literature. Ultimately, the interpretive complexity of Pharaoh poses a challenge to modern ideas of intertextuality and literary genre, which prioritise a hierarchical rather than horizontal model of textual influence.

show abstract

Finding the Right Words

Cited by 79 publications

References 0 publications

New Directions in the Study of Visigothic Spain

New Directions in the Study of Visigothic Spain

The Formula Reformulated: Sellic Spell and The Hobbit

The Old English Pharaoh: A Neglected ubi sunt Poem

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About