What's in a Name? The Past and Present Racism in 'Anglo-Saxon' Studies

Abstract

Since at least the early eighteenth century, academics have used the term 'Anglo-Saxon' to describe pre-Norman Conquest English literature, culture, and peoples. Yet neither earlier historians nor the early English themselves used the term often for the pre-Conquest English. The term's emergence in the academy accompanied the rise of a racial Anglo-Saxonism that saw the white English race as superior. Medieval studies participated in such racial constructions from its inauguration. Modern medieval studies has reproduced this racial Anglo-Saxonism, especially in the European academy.