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Writing the Barbarian Past: Studies in Early Medieval Historical Narrative

Writing the Barbarian Past: Studies in Early Medieval Historical Narrative AL-MASĀQ, 2017 VOL. 29, NO. 3, 273–282 BOOK REVIEWS Writing the Barbarian Past: Studies in Early Medieval Historical Narrative, [The Early Middle Ages, volume XXIV], by Shami Ghosh, 2016, Leiden: Brill, xiii + 315 pp., £99.00 (hardback), ISBN 9789004305229 This is a significant study which will add nuance to the engagement of scholars with the thorny issues of identity, ethnicity and the perception of the past in the Early Middle Ages. It arises as a revised version of Ghosh’s doctoral dissertation of 2009, but has clearly been overhauled and polished in all respects. The premise of the work is to “provide an examination” of one specific aspect of the process of medieval cultural evolution. Ghosh undertakes an analysis of how texts “dealing explicitly with a past that was in some manner ‘barbarian’ treated th[at] past in relation to the Roman aspect of the[ir] cultural inheritance” (p. 3). Ghosh analyses a mixture of narrative and poetic materials to comprehend their under- standing of a past – crucially between the apparent cultural and religious divides that operated as a result of the ongoing Christianisation of Europe. This fruitful approach allows the com- parison between what one might call the “usual” suspects, http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Al-Masaq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean Taylor & Francis

Writing the Barbarian Past: Studies in Early Medieval Historical Narrative

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Writing the Barbarian Past: Studies in Early Medieval Historical Narrative

Abstract

AL-MASĀQ, 2017 VOL. 29, NO. 3, 273–282 BOOK REVIEWS Writing the Barbarian Past: Studies in Early Medieval Historical Narrative, [The Early Middle Ages, volume XXIV], by Shami Ghosh, 2016, Leiden: Brill, xiii + 315 pp., £99.00 (hardback), ISBN 9789004305229 This is a significant study which will add nuance to the engagement of scholars with the thorny issues of identity, ethnicity and the perception of the past in the Early Middle Ages. It arises as a revised version of...
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Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Copyright
© 2017 Christopher Heath
ISSN
1473-348X
eISSN
0950-3110
DOI
10.1080/09503110.2017.1379940
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

AL-MASĀQ, 2017 VOL. 29, NO. 3, 273–282 BOOK REVIEWS Writing the Barbarian Past: Studies in Early Medieval Historical Narrative, [The Early Middle Ages, volume XXIV], by Shami Ghosh, 2016, Leiden: Brill, xiii + 315 pp., £99.00 (hardback), ISBN 9789004305229 This is a significant study which will add nuance to the engagement of scholars with the thorny issues of identity, ethnicity and the perception of the past in the Early Middle Ages. It arises as a revised version of Ghosh’s doctoral dissertation of 2009, but has clearly been overhauled and polished in all respects. The premise of the work is to “provide an examination” of one specific aspect of the process of medieval cultural evolution. Ghosh undertakes an analysis of how texts “dealing explicitly with a past that was in some manner ‘barbarian’ treated th[at] past in relation to the Roman aspect of the[ir] cultural inheritance” (p. 3). Ghosh analyses a mixture of narrative and poetic materials to comprehend their under- standing of a past – crucially between the apparent cultural and religious divides that operated as a result of the ongoing Christianisation of Europe. This fruitful approach allows the com- parison between what one might call the “usual” suspects,

Journal

Al-Masaq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean – Taylor & Francis

Published: Sep 2, 2017

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