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SUMMARY:The structure and purpose of Gildas's 'De excidio Britonum' - Dr K
 aren George\, Honorary Research Associate\, Dept. of Anglo-Saxon\, Norse a
 nd Celtic
DTSTART:20090925T160000Z
DTEND:20090925T170000Z
UID:TALK19776@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Dr Karen George
DESCRIPTION:Gildas's 'De excidio Britonum' is almost our sole source for t
 he study of fifth- and sixth-century Britain and thus for the formative bu
 t highly obscure decades between the departure of the Roman administration
  and the foundation of what would come to be known as England. It has prov
 ed difficult to establish either a date of composition or a wider context 
 for the work\, for Gildas gives us few references to contemporary events\,
  and those he does give are enigmatic. We are left with something of a con
 undrum\; the text cannot be fully understood without a context\, but the o
 nly way of establishing a context is from within the text itself.\nThis pa
 per will seek to demonstrate that an interdisciplinary approach to the 'De
  excidio' may reveal Gildas's purpose in writing and help to establish a c
 ontext for the work. The paper will also examine the complex literary stru
 cture of the 'De excidio' and the significance of Gildas's references to h
 eresy.
LOCATION:Room GR.04 English Faculty Building
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