Our Sea of Islands : New Approaches to British Insularity in the Late Middle Ages

This book considers how to conceive of the group of islands known in our time as the British Isles in the Late Middle Ages. Was the archipelago considered one geographical unit? Was it an it, or were the islands a they? Singular or plural? Contributions consider possible paths to thinking about late-medieval archipelagism, and in doing so, highlight the inconsistencies and contradictions in medieval (and modern) conceptions of the region. Contents Our seas of islands About the Authors References The trouble with Britain Abstract About the Author References Britain and the sea of darkness: Islandology in al-Idrīsī’s Nuzhat al-Mushtaq Abstract Desire for Islands Al-Idrīsīsr: A Ptolemaic Geography for a Norman Age Northern Birds in Dark Seas About the Author References From Pliny to Brexit: Spatial representation of the British Isles Abstract Between North and West The Eclipse of Insularity? The Anglo-Norman Archipelago ‘Brexit’ About the Author References Brendan meets Columbus: A more commodious islescape Abstract The Challenges of Isle and Ocean Saint Brendan and Christopher Columbus Meet in the Sea of Islands A More Commodious Ocean About the Author References Fictions of the Island: Girdling the sea Abstract About the Author References The Bermuda assemblage: Toward a posthuman globalization Abstract The Gulf Stream Hogs ‘No Island is an Island’: Peter Martyr’s 1511 Map Utopia An Atlantic Hurricane: July 1609 Coral The Starving Time Devils The Deliverance and the Patience Ambergris Quo Fata Ferunt Richard Norwood’s 1616 Map Tobacco Three Conclusions Anti-ideological Globalization Humans as Objects and Histories of Slavery Dynamism and Change in Global Systems About the Author References Afterword About the Author References Dynamic fluidity and wet ontology: Current work on the archipelagic North Sea The North Sea Arthurian Archipelagoes Celtic Otherworlds and Supernatural Islands About the Author References