MSO: Some Graduate Projexts at Oxford

i) Research at Oxford

From Robert Henryson, Orpheus and Eurydice, showing the printer's mark.

Oxford students' projects:

Truth and Fiction. Gascony, Jean Froissart's Chroniques and other chronicles of the Hundred Years War.

The aim of my research is to offer an analysis of Jean Froissart's account of Aquitaine/Gascony through a comparative reading of the different versions of his fourteenth-century Chroniques and contemporary works.

The intention of this analysis is two-fold. First, it intends to show how the passages selected shed light on the chronicler's (mis)conception of the region, its people and on his perception of an Anglo-Gascon identity. Second, it aims to determine, through the interwoven relationship of truth and fiction in the Chroniques, how much those 'Gascon' account for Froissart's values and ideals. Although the focus lies on Jean Froissart's Chroniques, the works of his predecessors and contemporaries are called upon for comparative purposes.

My thesis argues that the portrayal of Aquitaine/Gascony, in later books and versions of the Chroniques as well as in earlier ones, is particularly representative of Froissart's complex vision of reality, his world and society. His story, if not his history, of this 'dual' Gascon land - politically caught between two kingdoms; geographically caught between two worlds - and its men whose behaviour sways from idealised chivalry to realistic pragmatism is thus an apt model to illustrate Froissart's complex, seemingly ambivalent, ideals in the whole of the Chroniques.

Pauline Solineau, doctoral student, Merton College

Framing the Ineffable: The Encounter with God in Medieval Literature

In my doctoral work, which is a direct continuation of my MSt, I examine how medieval authors such as Bonaventure, Dante and Julian of Norwich attempted to 'frame the ineffable'.

Although the ineffable encounter with God cannot be expressed directly, the linguistic struggle with the ineffable is a recurrent phenomenon in medieval literature.

By using a narratological analysis of my sources, which now also includes vision literature, such as the Monk of Eynsham and Tundale, I attempt to highlight the basic structures of the texts and compare them. In short, this analysis reveals how the author constructs himself, through what 'lens' the ineffable is experienced, and how the implied reader is addressed and supposed to engage with the ineffable. For the latter part, I intend to use the theories of René Girard on the mimetics of desire.

I also ask how the texts reflect changes in philosophy/metaphysics, aesthetics, politics and the emerging 'individualism'. As an example, one can ask how the turn from the 'cosmic allergory' in neo-Platonic metaphysics and aesthetics (where everything may be a signifier of God) set new conditions for framing the ineffable.

The MSt and the medievalist community in Oxford were invaluable for me in developing my topic and to explore new ways to approach the medieval authors.

Gustav Zamore, doctoral student, Merton College

The Reception of Gildas in Britain

The period after the Roman withdrawal from Britain and before the establishment of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms has been termed the 'Dark Ages' due to the lack of written sources. This vacuum was filled by myths and legends such as those of King Arthur, as later generations of medieval writers, most famously Geoffrey of Monmouth, appropriated the somewhat hazy events of this period for their own ends.

The only literary work actually to survive from this time is the 'Ruin of Britain', or De excidio Britanniae, written in Latin by a monk called Gildas in 540 AD. In it, there is no mention of Arthur; rather, Gildas portrays the Anglo-Saxon invasions as an instrument of God's wrath visited upon the native British people for their sins, following the Old Testament pattern of national events. His style, at first glance an overblown rant by the 'mad monk', is actually familiar enough to anyone who has read Cicero before.

My research follows the reception of Gildas' work throughout both the early and late medieval periods, by looking at both the manuscripts and the attitudes of later writers towards the De excidio over the centuries; it tries to explain where, how, by whom and why this very nation- and situation-specific text was still copied and read as post-Roman Britain became England, then a part of the Norman Empire, then started to exercise imperial aspirations of its own.

Kirstie McGregor, doctoral student, St Cross College

Authorship, Authority, and the Idea of Jean de Meun in 14th-Century England

My D.Phil develops my M.St. research interests to explore the authorial self-presentation of some fourteenth-century English writers, and argues that their approaches to authorship were influenced by the thirteenth-century French writer Jean de Meun.

Jean de Meun wrote the second part of the French text Le Roman de la Rose, one of the most popular literary works in late-medieval Europe. My thesis will interrogate how writers like Chaucer, Gower, Langland and the Pearl-poet positioned themselves in relation to an idea of authorship derived from Jean's part of this French poem. I investigate how a network of texts, including fourteenth-century poetry from France, help create socially-defined idea of Jean de Meun and his relationship with readers.

I have a strong interest in manuscript studies as a record of both social labour and an instance of reader response. Handling manuscripts is integral to my project, but I am also working on bibliographical overviews of circulation of Rose manuscripts in fourteenth-century England.

I hope that my project will contribute to questions about how we should understand authorship and authority in the Middle Ages, and how we should think about how texts interact with other texts.

Philip Knox, doctoral student, New College

ii) Research worldwide

Marginalia has brief outlines of research projects worldwide: you can leave details of your own research here.