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Raluca Radulescu, MPhil, PhD

Enjoys Teaching

Medieval literature, in particular medieval romance and the Arthurian legend, Chaucer. In addition to the above, at postgraduate level I am interested in links between romance, chronicle and historical writing, including genealogy and propaganda, political culture and its expression in various texts and the reception of these in terms of class, gender, etc. I am also interested in the reception of miscellaneous manuscripts including works by major authors like Chaucer and Lydgate.

I welcome postgraduate projects linked to any of the above areas, especially those of an interdisciplinary nature.
I am currently supervising research students whose work focuses on the following topics: the horse in Malory and romance; the reception of the Prose Merlin; Carlisle in the Gawain romances; Chaucer.

Research profile

My research has focused in particular on the development of medieval romance (Arthurian and non-Arthurian) and its relationship with other genres, including chronicle and genealogy. These interests are reflected in my publications, ranging from articles and chapters to collaborative projects. My doctoral research, revised and published as a monograph, was a study of Sir Thomas Malory’s Morte Darthur from the perspective of the political concerns that he shared with his fifteenth-century gentry readers. Malory’s work continues to feature prominently among my other shorter studies (articles and chapters) and and a co-edited collection of essays bringing together the latest research in Malory studies, Re-viewing Le Morte Darthur: Texts and Contexts, Characters and Themes (co-edited with Kevin Whetter) (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2005).
My interest in audience and the relationship between social status, identity and the writing of literature has led me to initiate two other pioneering projects that I later co-edited, Gentry Culture in Late-Medieval England (with Alison Truelove, MUP, 2005) and Readers and Writers of the Brut Chronicle (with William Marx, 2006).

A number of current projects focus on genre in romance literature and historical writing, and on journeys in medieval romance. My fascination with  genealogical literature forms the impetus behind a collective project I started and have recently co-ordinated, Broken Lines: Genealogical Literature in Medieval Britain and France. The essays in this collection explore the genealogical literature of late-medieval Britain and France in relation to issues of identity, the transmission of power, and cultural, socio-political, and economic developments. The collection presents an interdisciplinary approach to the genealogical literature of the late-medieval period and the
first book-length study of genealogical literature to date, an exciting intervention into this
emerging field of interest. The book is forthcoming in the Brepols series Medieval Texts and Cultures of Northern Europe (2008) and is edited with Edward Donald Kennedy.

Another project I have just completed is a Companion to Medieval Popular Romance, the most inclusive and thorough examination of romance to date. The book was co-edited Cory James Rushton and is forthcoming in the Boydell & Brewer series Studies in Medieval Romance (spring 2009). These last two projects reflect my current interests in developing our understanding of the links between the production and reception of romance in the larger socio-political context of fifteenth-century England; I am exploring these links in my next monograph, Spiritual Journeys in Medieval English Romance.
I am a member of the following research clusters:

Cultures of War and Conflict Resolution Research Network (Medieval and Early Modern)

• Please visit the new culturesofwar.bangor.ac.uk website

Pre-Modern Travel Research Network (PREMOT)

• Please visit the new premot.bangor.ac.uk website

CARMEN (Confederation for the Advancement of Research through a Medieval European Network) Manuscripts Group

Major publications

Books

The Gentry Context for Malory’s Morte Darthur (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2003).
co-ed., Companion to Medieval Popular Romance, series Studies in Medieval Romance (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, forthcoming June 2009). Includes Introduction and own chapter.
co-ed., Broken Lines: Genealogical Literature in Medieval Britain and France, series Medieval Texts and Cultures of Northern Europe, vol. 16 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2008). Includes Introduction and own chapter.

co-ed., Readers and Writers of the Brut Chronicles, Trivium 36 (2006).  Contains own chapter, ‘Gentry Readers of Brut and Genealogical Material’, pp. 189-202.
co-ed., Gentry Culture in Late Medieval England (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2005).  Own chapter, ‘Literature’, 100-18, and co-written ‘Introduction’, pp. 1-18.
co-ed., Re-viewing Le Morte Darthur: Texts and Contexts, Characters and Themes (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2005). Own chapter ‘“Oute of measure”: Violence and Knighthood in Malory’s Morte Darthur, pp. 119-31.

Major articles and chapters (from 2003)

‘Malory and the Grail’, chapter 22 in A Companion to Arthurian Literature, ed. H. Fulton (Maldon, MA and Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009), pp. 326-39.
‘Malory’s Lancelot and the Key to Salvation’, Arthurian Literature 25 (2008), 93-118.
‘Writing Nation: Shaping Identity in Medieval Historical Narratives’, chapter 21 in Companion to Medieval English Literature c.1350-1500, ed. Peter Brown (Oxford:  Blackwell, 2007), pp. 358-73.
‘Ballad and Popular Romance in the Percy Folio’, Arthurian Literature 23 (2006), 68-80.
‘Gentry Readers of Brut and Genealogical Material’, in Readers and Writers of the Brut Chronicles, see reference above.
 ‘“Now I take uppon me the adventures to seke of holy thynges’: Lancelot and the Crisis of Arthurian Knighthood’, in Textual Traditions of Mediaeval Arthurian Literature: Essays in Honour of P.J.C. Field, ed. B. Wheeler(Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2004), pp. 285-95.
‘Sir Thomas Malory and Fifteenth-Century Political Ideas’, Arthuriana 13:3 (2003), 36-51.
‘Yorkist Propaganda and the Chronicle from Rollo to Edward IV’ (inclusive of appendix which contains an edition of the chronicle), Studies in Philology 100.4 (2003), 401-24.

Current Support for Others' Research

2007- contributor to the medieval section of Year's Work in English Studies (sections on romance, Malory, and Caxton)

2007- member of the committee of AMARC (Association for Medieval Archives in Research Collections)

2007- co-editor of 'Manuscript Culture in the British Isles' book series, York Medieval Press and Boydell & Brewer

2007-2010- AHRC peer review college member
2007 -member of the editorial board of the medieval section of 'Literature Compass' journal
2005- Director of Centre for Medieval Studies
2006-2008 co-convenor, IMEMS research seminars
2005-7 and 2007- Organiser of interdisciplinary doctoral training in medieval palaeography and codicology (AHRC funded 2005-7, then by Bangor College of Arts and Humanities)
2002-  Member, Committee of the British Branch of the International Arthurian Society
2006-  UK and Ireland Liaison Officer, Carmen (Confederation for the Advancement of Research through a Medieval European Network)

Peer recognition 2001-2007

2006: Teaching Medieval Romance Network (English Subject Centre funded)
2006: Member, Research Committee on the Winchester Malory project (with De Montfort and the British Library)
2002: Research Associate, Laboratoire de Médiévistique Occidentale de Paris, Conseil National de Recherche Scientifique, Sorbonne, Paris
2002: Research Fellow, Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, Paris (6 months)
2001: Andrew Mellon Fellow, Huntington Library, San Marino (2 months)