• Introduction: The ‘Germanic’ and its Discontents

    Author(s):
    Matthias Friedrich (see profile) , James M. Harland
    Date:
    2021
    Subject(s):
    Middle Ages, Germans--Social life and customs, Germanic languages, Civilization, Classical, History, Ancient
    Item Type:
    Book chapter
    Tag(s):
    Early Middle Ages, Germanic culture, Late Antiquity, Medieval history
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/t24y-3427
    Abstract:
    Any reader of scholarship on the ancient and early medieval world will be familiar with the term 'Germanic', which is frequently used as a linguistic category, ethnonym, or descriptive identifier for a range of forms of cultural and literary material. But is the term meaningful, useful, or legitimate? The term, frequently applied to peoples, languages, and material culture found in non-Roman north-western and central Europe in classical antiquity, and to these phenomena in the western Roman Empire’s successor states, is often treated as a legitimate, all-encompassing name for the culture of these regions. Its usage is sometimes intended to suggest a shared social identity or ethnic affinity among those who produce these phenomena. Yet, despite decades of critical commentary that have highlighted substantial problems, its dominance of scholarship appears not to have been challenged. This edited volume, which offers contributions ranging from literary and linguistic studies to archaeology, and which span from the first to the sixteenth centuries AD, examines why the term remains so pervasive despite its problems, offering a range of alternative interpretative perspectives on the late and post-Roman worlds.
    Metadata:
    xml
    Published as:
    Book chapter     Show details
    Pub. DOI:
    10.1515/9783110701623-001
    Publisher:
    De Gruyter
    Pub. Date:
    2021
    Book Title:
    Interrogating the ‘Germanic’: A Category and its Use in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages
    Author/Editor:
    Matthias Friedrich, James M. Harland
    Chapter:
    Introduction: The ‘Germanic’ and its Discontents
    Page Range:
    1 - 18
    ISBN:
    9783110699760
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    2 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved

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