The present volume is intended as a scientific conversation between pioneering research and the traditionally leading disciplines of medievalism. With that aim, the collection presents a selection of crucial essays to add to contemporary discussion which, however convergent and synchronous in approach, also pull in heterogeneous distinct ways and enhance the multiple perspectives which are currently embraced in the study of English medievalism. The chapters, fifteen in all, constitute a peer-reviewed selection of papers presented at the 22nd International Conference of the Spanish Society for Mediaeval English Language and Literature (SELIM), which brought together a large number of scholars worldwide, and was held at the Department of Modern Languages of the University of La Rioja in 2010. A brief glance at the book's contents evinces the manifestly plural ways in which the English Middle Ages, the mesmerising media tempestas, are being addressed in current critical debate, from the diverse areas of linguistics, literature, teaching methodology and translation. In all, the book becomes exceptional witness to all these developments, being not foolhardy to predict that the dark old ages provide, as ever, foundations for stimulating new highlights and ideas.
About the Author: Javier Martin Arista teaches English Linguistics at the University of La Rioja and leads a research group specializing in the morphology and lexicology of Old English (www.nerthusproject.com). Roberto Torre Alonso, Andres Canga Alonso and Inmaculada Medina Barco are Lecturers in English at the University of La Rioja. Javier Martin Arista obtained his doctorate in English from the University of Zaragoza with a dissertation entitled SVO and Passive Order in English: Synchronic, Diachronic and Typological Perspectives (1993) and was appointed senior Lecturer in English at the University of La Rioja in 1996. He carried out postdoctoral research at the University of Sheffield, UK, and has been a Visiting Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania, the University at Buffalo, the University of Amsterdam and the University of Toronto. He has also delivered lectures by invitation at several European and American universities, including Newcastle, Strathclyde, Sheffield Hallam, Queen Mary-London, Odense, Copenhagen and Toronto. Javier Martin Arista has published more than fifty book chapters and articles in journals specialising in theoretical linguistics, English studies and diachronic studies. Recent publications by Javier Martin Arista include A Typology of Morphological Constructions in Deconstructing Constructions (John Benjamins, 2009); Projections and Constructions in Functional Morphology: The Case of Old English HREOW in Language and Linguistics, 12/2 (2011); and Adjective formation and lexical layers in Old English in English Studies, 92/3 (2011). Roberto Torre Alonso has been a Lecturer in the Department of Modern Languages, University of La Rioja, since 2008. Dr Torre Alonso is a member of the Functional Grammars Research Group at the University of La Rioja, which is currently working in the development of the Online Lexical Database of Old English Nerthus. Dr Torre Alonso wrote his PhD dissertation entitled Process Feeding in the Formation of Old English Nouns: Zero-derivation, Affixation and Compounding in December 2009. His research so far has been focused on the analysis of word-formation processes in Old English and has led to the publication of several journal articles including Morphological Process Feeding in the Formation of Old English Nouns in Slovak Association for the Study of English, 7 (2010); The Morphological Structure of Old English Complex Nouns in ATLANTIS, 33/1 (2011); and Nominal Affix Combinations in Old English: Distribution and Restrictions in Revista Espanola de Linguistica Aplicada-RESLA, 24 (2011). Andres Canga Alonso has been a Lecturer in the Department of Modern Languages, University of La Rioja, since September 2009. Previously, he was Lecturer at the University of Oviedo. He was also a teacher of EFL at the high school level for eight years. His PhD thesis received an award from the Spanish Ministry of Education in 2006. He is a member of the GLAUR research group and the CRAL (Centre for Research in the Applications of Language) and belongs to the editorial boards of the Journal of English Studies and RAEL. His research focuses on applied linguistics, especially on vocabulary acquisition in EFL instruction by means of e-mail tandem. He is also interested in the development of learner autonomy by means of the ELP and competence-based approaches. Some his most outstanding publications are Promoting Autonomy in Mixed-Ability Secondary Students through E-mail Tandem in VIAL, 3 (2006); El Portafolio como recurso para la reflexion y la autoevaluacion en alumnos con dificultades de aprendizaje in Porta Linguarum, 16 (2011); and Promoting Basic Competencies in EFL Instruction by Means of E-mail Tandem in the Journal of Language Teaching and Research, Vol 3 (2) (2012). Inmaculada Medina Barco has taught Contemporary Spanish Language and Literature at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1997-2000), Renaissance and Golden Age Literature at the University of Navarre (2001-2006) and at Delhi University, in India (2002 and 2004). She has recently been an Erasmus visiting teacher at the National University of Ireland (2010) and the University of Manchester (2010). At present, she teaches English Language at the University of La Rioja (2009-). She also teaches Medieval and Renaissance Literature as a tutor at the National University of Distance Education (UNED), with a special focus on new critical approaches to Shakespeare studies (2008-). In 2009, she was offered a scholarship to Cambridge University, Faculty of English, to pursue the European Doctorate Mention. One of her main interests deals with the interrelations between literature, film, and the arts, which gained her a Master of Arts in Comparative Literature at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2001), and has led her to publish diverse articles and organize conferences on those specific fields. She is also devoted to investigating the impact of Buddhist and Eastern thought in present-day literature in English, and is an English/Spanish translator for Ediciones Dharma books.