Cameron Houston
Published: 21 January 2019
The relationship between political change and ethnic discourses during the transformation of the Carolingian world, c. 840-1050.
University of St Andrews
The relationship between political change and ethnic discourses during the transformation of the Carolingian world, c. 840-1050.
This period tends to be absorbed into grand historical narratives concerning the origins of ‘France’ and ‘Germany’. Such a view, however, does not account for contemporary uses of language and labels in ‘ethnic’ rather than ‘national’ discourses. Moreover, in showing how ethnic discourses were central to the formation of post-Roman kingdoms between the sixth and eighth centuries, Walter Pohl and the ‘Vienna School’ have demonstrated how ethnic discourses’ shifting meanings did not correlate directly with ‘ethnic’ or ‘national’ communities. They argued that ethnic labels were used to negotiate and navigate political change in a range of discourses.
By employing Viennese methodologies, which have hitherto been employed only to systematically study the post-Roman period, this thesis seeks to not only challenge the grand narrative outlined above, but to explore how notions of group belonging were created and given meaning in varying circumstances and to varying ends in the changing political world of the long tenth century.
First published: 21 January 2019