Our Sea of Islands

This book considers how to conceive of the group of islands known in our time as the British Isles in the Late Middle Ages. Was the archipelago considered one geographical unit? Was it an it, or were the islands a they? Singular or plural? Contributions consider possible paths to thinking about late-medieval archipelagism, and in doing so, highlight the inconsistencies and contradictions in medieval (and modern) conceptions of the region.

Explores how to approach the modern-day British Isles in a late medieval context Highlights the difficulties of defining and conceiving the archipelago Considers shifting conceptions about the geography of the British Isles in the Late Middle Ages

Autorentext

Matthew Bold Goldie is Professor at Rider University, USA.

Sebastian Sobecki is Professor at the University of Toronto, Canada.

Inhalt

1. Our Seas of Islands.- 2. The trouble with Britain.- 3.Britain and the sea of darkness: Islandology in al-Idrs's Nuzhat al-Mushtaq.
   • 4. From Pliny to Brexit: Spatial representation of the British Isles.- 5. Brendan meets Columbus: A more commodious islescape.- 6. Fictions of the Island: girdling the sea.- 7. The Bermuda assemblage: Toward a posthuman globalization.- 8. Afterword.- 9. Dynamic fluidity and wet ontology: Current work on the archipelagic North Sea.