Descrizione del progetto
Uno sguardo più attento all'identità linguistica nell'Europa medievale
Nell'Europa medievale, le questioni relative all'identità linguistica hanno avuto un'importanza significativa. In questo arazzo sfaccettato, i ricercatori stanno esaminando il rapporto tra lingua e identità, nonché la demarcazione delle lingue affini. Il progetto TVOF, finanziato dal CER, sfida le narrazioni prevalenti. Concentrandosi sul periodo cruciale del 1100-1450 ed esaminando il ruolo del francese come lingua sovralocale e transnazionale, il progetto si propone di chiarire il suo impatto sull'emergere di un'identità europea durante il Medioevo. Grazie alla collaborazione internazionale di studiosi di diverse discipline, il progetto offre un nuovo approccio alla comprensione della complessa interazione tra lingua e cultura nella formazione della storia europea.
Obiettivo
Two questions about linguistic identity lie at the heart of this project. What is the relation historically between language and
identity in Europe? How are cognate languages demarcated from each other? Normative models of national languages
helped shape Europe. Yet they did not become hegemonic until the 19th century. Indeed, they were imposed (not always
successfully) on a linguistic map of Europe more fluid and complex than most histories of national languages allow. In the
Middle Ages multilingualism was common, as was the use of non-local languages, notably Latin, but also French. This
project undertakes a revaluation of the nature and value of the use of French in Europe during a crucial period, 1100-1450,
less in terms of its cultural prestige (the traditional focus of scholarship) than of its role as a supralocal, transnational
language, particularly in Western Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean. The project fosters collaboration between, and
cuts across, different intellectual and national scholarly traditions, drawing on expertise in codicology, critical theory,
linguistics, literature, and philology; it involves scholars from a range of European countries and North America, entailing
empirical research around a complex and widely disseminated textual tradition vital to medieval understandings of
European history and identity, L’Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César. This case study will ground and stimulate broader
speculative reflection on the two core questions concerning linguistic identity. While the project builds on prior critiques of
the construction of, and investment in, national languages and literary traditions, it has a broad historical scope, and will
offer an innovative, genuinely international perspective, in terms of both its object of study and method. Indeed, its final aim,
through and beyond its consideration of French as a lingua franca, is to interrogate that language’s role in the emergence
of a European identity in the Middle Ages.
Campo scientifico
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesdatabases
- humanitieslanguages and literaturelinguisticsphonology
- humanitieshistory and archaeologyhistorymedieval history
- humanitieslanguages and literatureliterature studiesliterary theoryliterary criticism
- humanitieslanguages and literatureliterature studieshistory of literature
Programma(i)
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
ERC-ADG - Advanced GrantIstituzione ospitante
WC2R 2LS London
Regno Unito