An investigation of the use of Late Antique European history by late medieval and Renaissance writers such as Chaucer, Shakespeare, Davenant, Trissino, and Corneille. The liminality of the late antique period and the issues of ethnicity and religion...
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An investigation of the use of Late Antique European history by late medieval and Renaissance writers such as Chaucer, Shakespeare, Davenant, Trissino, and Corneille. The liminality of the late antique period and the issues of ethnicity and religion it raises makes it very different from that of the classical world in analogous writers. "Barbarian Memory will be of interest to a variety of early-period scholars. It urges us to recognize the paradoxical and conflicted narrative of history and religion that emerges when we cast into relief the matter of the barbarian as part of a cultural tapestry extending from the late antique to the early modern period. Birns uncovers a barbarian uncanny that re-shapes literary readings at the levels of both character and form. - Seeta Chaganti, Associate Professor of English, University of California, Davis, USA.