The Englishman Abroad: The Medieval origins of an identity Professor Anthony Bale, Birkbeck, University of London
Event details
Annual Riddy Lecture
In this lecture Anthony Bale will explore some late medieval English travellers' texts, focussing especially on a little-studied Middle English travel guide, sometimes known as Advice for a Journey to the Orient. He will examine the authorship and occasion of the text, and describe its place in positioning Englishness within international travel, at the origins of the vexed identity of the 'Englishman abroad'.
About the speaker
Anthony Bale is Professor of Medieval Studies at Birkbeck, University of London. He has published widely on medieval literature, culture, and religion. In particular, his work has explored relations between Christians and Jews in medieval England and, more recently, the culture of medieval pilgrimage. He has also edited and translated several medieval texts, and new translations and editions of The Book of Marvels & Travels by John Mandeville, The Book of Margery Kempe, and Medieval English Travel, a sourcebook, all with Oxford University Press. His current work explores travel, books, and pilgrimage between England and the Holy Land in the later Middle Ages. His new study of Margery Kempe, Margery Kempe: A Mixed Life, was published by Reaktion Books in October 2021. His new book, A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages will be published by Penguin in the UK in November 2023.