Paradigms and Methods in Early Medieval Studies

The articles in this volume, by scholars all pursuing careers in the United States, concern the theoretical approaches and methods of early medieval studies. Most of the issues examined span the period from roughly 400 to 1000 CE and regions stretching from westernmost Eurasia to the Black Sea and the Baltic. This is the first volume of essays explicitly to reassess the heuristic structures and methodologies of research on "early medieval Europe." Because of its geographic, chronological, thematic, and methodological diversity and scope, the collection also showcases the breadth of early medieval studies currently practiced in the United States.

Auteur
CELIA CHAZELLE teaches at the College of New Jersey, USA.

FELICE LIFSHITZ teaches at Florida International University, USA.

Contenu
Introduction: Themes and Concerns of the Essays; C.Chazelle & F.Lifshitz PART I: EAST AND WEST: THE 'PIRENNE THESIS' IN THE 21ST CENTURY Aryans, Semites and the End of Antiquity: Rereading Henri Pirenne's Mohammed and Charlemagne; C.Leyser The 'Slavic East', the Amber Trail and the Origins of the European Economy; F.Curta Mitteleuropa and the Pirenne Thesis: Between Byzantium and the Latin West (800 -1025); C.Bowlus PART II: ARCHEOLOGY AND MATERIAL CULTURE Drawing a Line Under Antiquity: Archeological and Historical Categories of Evidence in the Transition from the Ancient World to the Middle Ages; M.Kulikowski Cities as Idea and Reality in Late Antique Gaul: Does Archeology Suggest a New Paradigm?; B.K.Young Material Ethnogenesis? A Crystal Conch of the 'Goths'; G.Kornbluth People or persons? Ethnicity as a Paradigm for the Study of Early Medieval Art; L.P.Nees PART III: GENDER, WOMEN, AND FAMILY STRUCTURES Period Trouble: Contesting the Teleology of Medieval Women's History; L.Bitel Intertext and Context in the Early Middle Ages: Gender Ideology and Baptismal Liturgy in Carolingian Francia; F.Lifshitz Carolingian Creation of the Model of Patrilineage; C.B.Bouchard PART IV: THE WORLD OF TEXT AND INTELLECT Thinking Outside the Box: Problems with the Paradigms of Early Medieval Thought; C.Chazelle Political History: Authors as Actors; J.Glenn PART V: YESTERDAY AND TODAY Are 'They Not Like Us'?; B.Bachrach Mary Magdelane, Merovingians, and the Priory of Sion: The Modern Mythology of Medieval History; G.Koziol