Creativity and Critique Social and Critical Theory

Glenda Ballantyne, Ph.d. (2001) in Sociology, La Trobe University is Lecturer in Sociology at Swinburne University of Technology, Lilydale. Her research interests include social theory, social movements, multiple modernities, historical sociology, cultural diversity, agency, identity and subjectivity and hermeneutics.

A History of the Abbey of Bury St Edmunds 1182 - 1256

St Edmund's Abbey was one of the most highly privileged and wealthiest religious houses in medieval England, one closely involved with the central government; its history is an integral part of English history. This book (the first of two volumes) offers a magisterial and comprehensive account of the Abbey during the thirteenth century, based primarily on evidence in the abbey's records (over 40 registers survive).

Cultural Diversity in the British Middle Ages

Through close readings of both familiar and obscure medieval texts, the contributors to this volume attempt to read England as a singularly powerful entity within a vast geopolitical network. This capacious world can be glimpsed in the cultural flows connecting the Normans of Sicily with the rulers of England, or Chaucer with legends arriving from Bohemia. It can also be seen in surprising places in literature, as when green children are discovered in twelfth-century Yorkshire or when Welsh animals begin to speak of the long history of their land’s colonization.

The Welsh King and his Court

Early medieval kingship was exercised in a domestic setting with no divide between the officers of state and the royal household. The Laws of Court in the medieval Welsh lawbooks provide some of the most interesting evidence for the structure and operation of a royal court in early medieval Europe. These are richly detailed but also problematic texts, and their correct interpretation is the central concern of The Welsh King and his Court.

England and Normandy in the Middle Ages

The histories of England and of Normandy in the middle ages were inextricably linked. England and Normandy in the Middle Ages provides a synoptic view by leading scholars of not only political and military but also of ecclesiastical and cultural links. Taken together these essays provide an up-to-date scholarly account of relations between England and its immediate neighbour.