Literacy and identity in early medieval Ireland

Author(s)

• Johnston, Elva

Bibliographic Information

Literacy and identity in early medieval Ireland

Elva Johnston

（Studies in Celtic history, 33）

Boydell, 2013

• : hbk

Note

Includes bibliographical references (p. 203-226) and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

The first comprehensive survey of the Irish literary elite in the early middle ages. Winner of the 2015 Irish Historical Research Prize. Much of our knowledge of early medieval Ireland comes from a rich literature written in a variety of genres and in two languages, Irish and Latin. Who wrote this literature and what role did they play within society? What did the introduction and expansion of literacy mean in a culture where the vast majority of the population continued to be non-literate? How did literacy operate in and intersect with the oral world? Was literacy a key element in the formation and articulation of communal and elite senses of identity? This book addresses these issues in the first full, inter-disciplinary examination of the Irish literate elite and their social contexts between ca. 400-1000 AD. It considers the role played by Hiberno-Latin authors, the expansion of vernacular literacy and the key place of monasteries within the literate landscape. Also examined are the crucial intersections between literacy and orality, which underpin the importance played by the literate elite in giving voice to aristocratic and communal identities. This study places these developments within a broader European context, underlining the significance of the Irish experience of learning and literacy. Elva Johnston is lecturer in the School of History and Archives, University College Dublin.

Table of Contents

Irish Literacy in a Late Antique Context The Island and the World: Irish Responses to Literacy c. 600-850 The Island as the World: Community and Identity c. 750-950 Changing Patterns of Monastic Literacy c. 800-1000 Circuits of Learning and Literature c. 700-1000 Literacy, Orality and Identity: The Secondary-Oral Context Appendix: The Chronicles as a Record of Literacy, 797-1002 Bibliography

by "Nielsen BookData"

Details

• NCID: BB13073132
• ISBN:
  • 9781843838555
• Country Code: uk
• Title Language Code: eng
• Text Language Code: eng
• Place of Publication: Woodbridge
• Pages/Volumes: vii, 238 p.
• Size: 24 cm
• Classification:
  • DC23 : 891.6209001
• Subject Headings:
  • LCSH : Irish literature -- To 1100 -- History and criticism
  • LCSH : Latin literature, Medieval and modern -- Ireland -- History and criticism
  • LCSH : Literacy -- Social aspects -- Ireland -- History -- To 1500
  • LCSH : National characteristics, Irish, in literature
  • LCSH : Monastic and religious life -- Ireland -- History -- Early church, ca. 30-600
  • LCSH : Monastic and religious life -- Ireland -- History -- Middle Ages, 600-1500
  • LCSH : Ireland -- Civilization -- To 1172
• Parent Bibliography ID:
  • BA01317367