Мереминский С. Г. «Самая памятная дата»: Нормандское завоевание в английской литературе XIX — начала ХХ века [Электронный ресурс] // Vox medii aevi. 2019. Vol. 2(5). С. 73–87. URL: https://voxmediiaevi.com/2019-2-mereminskiy
DOI: 10.24411/2587-6619-2019-00014
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Stanislav Mereminskiy
Candidate of Sciences (History), Senior Researcher at the Center for the Study of the History of Historical Knowledge, Institute of World History, Russian Academy of Science; Associate Professor at The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration
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“The most Memorable Date”: The Norman Conquest in English Literature of the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries
The paper deals with various manifestations of the Norman Conquest (1066) in three iconic English literary works: “Ivanhoe” by Sir Walter Scott, “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll, and “1066 and All That” by W. Sellar and R. Yeatman. Scott’s novel, which became his first book on a medieval subject, made a huge success and had a strong impact on the growing interest of English public in the events of 1066 and their consequences. The idea of the forging of united English nation as a result of commixture of two “races” (the Saxons and the Normans) became a major concept of ‘Whiggish’ historiography of the Victorian age. It penetrated into both scholar works and textbooks. Among the last was “A Short Course of History” by Havilland Le Mesurier Chepmell. The fragment of that work dealing with the Norman Conquest Lewis Carroll inserted into his classic fairy tale as an example of the “driest thing I know”. The model of Whig’s historiography, designed to justify ongoing success of the British state, faced a serious crisis under the influence of the World War I. Among the manifestations of that crisis was a book by W. Sellar and R. Yeatman, a brilliant satire on school textbooks that were at the same time deconstructed and brought to the point of absurdity.
Key words: “1066 and All That”; Lewis Carroll medievalism; Norman Conquest of England; Walter Scott; Whig’s historiography.