Shami Ghosh
Fellow by Examination, Magdalen College
Research Interests
I work on medieval historiography, the social, economic and cultural history of medieval Germany, and literature in the older Germanic languages (principally Middle High German, Old Norse, Old High German). My dissertation (which I hope to revise for publication in the next couple of years) was a study of various kinds of historical narratives from the 6th to the 10th centuries, in Latin, Old English and Old High German, and I have published on Germanic heroic poetry and its historical background, and Middle High German courtly literature, and recently completed a monograph on the Old Norse kings' sagas. My major projects at present concern the long road to modern economic systems in western Europe; and Wolfram von Eschenbach's 'Parzival'. For the first project, I focus on Germany, but attempt to view it in a comparative perspective, and envisage the publication, in the first instance, of two papers, one an overview of the process of transition to capitalism in Germany and England between c. 1200 and c. 1800, and the second an examination of the spread of money, mints and markets east of the Rhine up to c. 1100; I expect that this will lead to further work on related subjects. With regard to Wolfram, my major project of the next decade will be a commentary on or detailed interpretation of book IX of his 'Parzival'; I’m also beginning to work on a paper on the depiction of women, love and marriage in his works, as well as a comparative study of the themes of knowledge and ignorance in 'Parzival' and Hartmann von Aue's 'Gregorius'. Smaller-scale projects that are underway and should be completed in the next few years include papers on the early historiography of the Baltic crusades and on the sources concerning King Harald Fine-Hair of Norway.
Publications
- 'Forms of kinship: unresolved tensions in Wolfram's "Willehalm"', Euphorion, 97, 3 (2003), 303-25.
- On the origins of Germanic heroic poetry: a case study of the legend of the Burgundians', Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur, 129, 2 (2007), 220-52.
- 'Condwiramurs', Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte, 82, 1 (2008), 3-25.
- 'The barbarian past in early medieval historical narrative' [PhD, University of Toronto, 2009].
- Kings' sagas and Norwegian history: problems and perspectives [monograph under review, c. 95,000 words].
- 'Rural economies and the transition to capitalism in comparative perspective' [in preparation].