Il ruolo dei ‘saraceni’ nel consolidamento di un senso della nazione nell’Inghilterra del XIV secolo - Articolo invitato

Sergio Guerra

doi:10.7358/ling-2016-002-guer

Il ruolo dei ‘saraceni’ nel consolidamento di un senso della nazione nell’Inghilterra del XIV secolo - Articolo invitato

Sergio Guerra

Abstract

The aim of this essay is to illuminate an often ignored aspect whenever one talks about the factors contributing to the strengthening of a sense of nation in England in the period following the Norman conquest, namely the role played by the mythical figure of the ‘saracen’. This is a cultural fabrication denoting the Muslim (but bearing very little or no resemblance with the real historical one) which is present in a great variety of texts, particularly in Middle English romances. The article intends to contribute to an academic project of a ‘postcolonial’ kind which only recently got underway: to ascertain the role played by Islam and the Islamic world in European and global history, exposing what official, Eurocentric historiography (and on its trail literary criticism) had usually withheld or elided, deconstructing its truisms, unmasking myths and stereotypes, and decentring its narrative.

Keywords

Saracens; Christian-Muslims relations; Englishness; Middle English romances; Medieval Orientalism

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Linguæ & - Rivista di lingue e culture moderne
Registered by Tribunale di Milano (06/04/2012 n. 185)
Online ISSN 1724-8698 - Print ISSN 2281-8952

Dipartimento di Scienze della Comunicazione, Studi Umanistici e Internazionali: Storia, Culture, Lingue, Letterature, Arti, Media
Università degli Studi di Urbino Carlo Bo

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