Multilingualism, Literacy and Books

About the lecture

In this module, we think about the literary culture of the 14th-century England, focusing in particular on: (i) the fact that England was a multilingual country where most people would have known more than one language; (ii) the different uses of different languages, e.g. English as a vernacular language, Latin as the language for education and the church, etc.; (iii) bilingual literature, e.g. ‘Summer is icumen in’ (Harley MS 978); (iv) annotations in a different language than the original text, e.g. English glosses of a Latin text; (v) the level of literacy in 14th-century England; (vi) the development of different kinds of texts in 14th-century England; and (vii) the production of books in this period and the kinds of books that were produced.

About the lecturer

Marion Turner is Associate Professor of English at Jesus College, University of Oxford. She is the author of a ground-breaking biography of Chaucer: Chaucer: A European Life (Princeton, 2019). This biography focuses on Chaucer as an international figure, exploring his travels, his multicultural influences, his multilingual identity, and the global aspects of medieval London.

Her other books include Chaucerian Conflict (Oxford, 2007) and, as editor, A Handbook of Middle English Studies (Wiley-Blackwell, 2013), and she has published many articles on Chaucer and other aspects of late medieval literature. Marion has received research funding from the British Academy, the Leverhulme Trust, and the Wellcome Trust. She often speaks in the media, including Radio 4, BBC1, Channel 4, and ITV. She has a particular interest in outreach, taking part in Chaucer Days at the Ashmolean Museum and the Weston Library, aimed at sixth form students of Chaucer, and often speaking at schools and colleges.