Literary Research and the Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Eras

Literary Research and the Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Eras: Strategies and Sources is a guide to scholarly research in the field of medieval English literature covering the period 450 CE to 1500 CE. Graduate students and scholars researching this period face many challenges: working in two distinct literary traditions, comprehending multiple languages (Old English, Middle English, Latin, Anglo-Norman, and French), knowing the manuscript tradition for a particular title and the research methodologies for discovering and locating primary sources in the print and digital realms, and the awareness of the overlap and assimilation of literary themes with religious, historical, cultural, and political perspectives. The volume presents the best practices for building a foundation of sound scholarship practices in the field of medieval English literature.

This volume explores primary and secondary resources, including general literary research guides; types of library catalogs; print and online bibliographies and indexes; scholarly journals and series; manuscripts, archives, and digital collections; genres; tools for understanding Old and Middle English such as dictionaries, lexicons, thesauri, glosses, etymologies, palaeographies, and text mining tools; and Web resources. The final chapter researches the shifting reputation of the poet, Thomas Hoccleve. Given the interdisciplinary nature of medieval studies, an appendix of additional readings in art, history, music, philosophy, religion, science, social sciences, and theater is provided.

Dustin Booher is the Coordinator of Collection Services for the Fairfax County Public Library in Fairfax, VA. He has a master of arts degree in Biblical Studies from the University of Chicago and a master of Library and Information Science degree from the University of Pittsburgh.



Kevin B. Gunn is the Coordinator of Digital Scholarship at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC where he is the liaison for English, Drama, Media Studies, Modern Languages, and Philosophy. He has a master of arts degree in Philosophy from the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada, and a master of Library and Information Studies degree from McGill University, Montreal, Canada. His research interests include digital humanities, digital scholarship, emerging technologies, and information ethics.