Medieval Narratives of Migration in the Present Day
Geoffrey of Monmouth’s insular imitation of Virgil establishes an expectation that migration is essential to the formation of the British nations. Medieval narratives elaborated the tale of Trojan translatio, adding more tales of foundational migrants such as Albina and her sisters, Thomas Becket’s legendary Saracen mother, or Chaucer and Gower’s Custance. Yet the use of the medieval in present-day British discourses of migration is conflicted: this paper surveys traces of the Galfridian narrative, the Refugee Tales project and its appropriation of the medieval, and the presence of the medieval in the citizenship test.
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This page was last updated on 29 June 2024
