Overview

"From the eighth century to the turn of the millennium, East Anglia had a variety of identities thrust upon it by authors of the period who envisioned a unified England. Although they were not regional writers in the modern sense, Bede, Felix, the annalists of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, King Alfred of Wessex, Abbo of Fleury, and lfric of Eynsham took a keen interest in East Anglia, especially in its potential to undo English cultural cohesiveness as they imagined it. Angles on a Kingdom argues that those authors treated East Anglia as both a hindrance and a stimulus to the development of early English ""national"" consciousness. Combining close textual reading with consideration of early medieval barrow burials, coinage, border delineation, and rivalries between monastic houses, Joseph Grossi examines various forms of cultural affirmation and manipulation. Angles on a Kingdom shows that, over the course of roughly two and a half centuries, the literary metamorphoses of East Anglia hint at the region's recurring tensions with its neighbours tensions which suggest that writers who sought to depict a coherent England downplayed what they deemed to be dangerous impulses emanating from the island's easternmost corner."

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9781487505738

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Beautifully written, substantial, and intelligently argued. Joseph Grossi demonstrates how richly one can read and retell written source material concerning a major region in a formative period of England that was supposedly left without a history. This panoramic review of four centuries offers an invaluable bedrock and context for other specialized research projects - and now one blockbuster film, The Dig - on the kingdom of East Anglia. - John Hines, Professor of Archaeology, University of Cardiff In Angles on a Kingdom, Joseph Grossi reveals how East Anglia's resources and strategic location attracted contemporaries while its hybrid and shifting identities troubled them. He demonstrates the persistence of regionalism in early medieval England and shows through vivid prose and insightful analysis how depictions of East Anglia and its inhabitants changed over nearly three centuries. - Nicole Guenther Discenza, Professor of English, University of South Florida In this beautifully written and learned book, Joseph Grossi examines the charged role of East Anglia as both a distinctive region and a key player in the making of a pan-English identity during the early medieval period. As well-versed in contemporary theory as he is with his sources, adroit at interweaving contemporary views of East Anglia into his account of its early medieval representations, Grossi has created a rare thing: a work that edifies and delights. Angles on a Kingdom is an essential contribution to existing work on regionalism in medieval England. - Kathy Lavezzo, Professor of English, University of Iowa

"""Grossi’s wide-ranging and at times whimsical book will encourage readers to revisit familiar texts in search of unsuspected meanings…Reading it prompts all manner of new questions."" -- Richard Purkiss, Oxford * <em>Early Medieval Europe</em> *"

Author Information

Joseph Grossi is an associate professor in the Department of English and the Department of Hispanic and Italian Studies at the University of Victoria.

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