| Popis: |
This thesis is about the communication of collective identity in the landscape of Anglo-Saxon England. The goal of this research is to examine the way landscape was perceived in historical writing, and how landscape shaped the strategies by which political authority and collective identity was transmitted. Thus, this thesis is concerned with the relationship between practice and perception. From a historiographical perspective, this work will bring together three aspects of research that are sometimes not in simultaneous dialogue, namely: landscape, identity, and political history, providing an opportunity to synthesise major historiographical work, and demonstrate the interconnectedness of topics often dealt with in isolation. The central contention of this work is that the landscape was not ‘passive’ or mute; it was ideologically charged and fiercely contested. Not only did this guide political and social strategies, but it also underpinned historical writing, and the landscape itself could be used for rhetorical effect. The first major argument of this thesis is that Anglo-Saxon collective identity was layered and flexible, and it cannot be entirely determined or discussed in ethnic terms. As such, techniques that communicated collective identity needed to be robust enough to incorporate complex layers of Anglo-Saxon self-perception. It will be argued that ‘conflict’, as a broad process and set of interactions which were interpreted and communicated in historical writing, was an important way to locate collective identity in a landscape context. The places where battles took place and were memorialised, where assemblies publicly asserted the status of the military elite, and where acts of reconciliation took place were perceived as being significant and were incorporated into wider landscapes. Thus, the perception of the landscape, and the layers of meaning that it evoked in Anglo-Saxon society could subvert the traditional dichotomy of ‘core-and-periphery’ by emphasising the ideological significance of landscapes that might traditionally be understood as ‘peripheral’, such as forests, moors, or fens. |
