Foerster, Thomas

Foto: UiB

Phone: (+47) 55 58 30 42
E-mail: thomas. foerster@cms.uib.no

Project Title:
The Last of the Normans. Culture and Identity in Sicily 1194 and Normandy 1204

Project summary:
When Emperor Henry VI in 1194 conquered the Norman kingdom of Sicily and King Philipp Augustus of France conquered Normandy ten years later this seemed to be the end of the Norman achievements in Europe. The project analyses the interrelation of transcultural heritage and constructions of identities in the different Norman dominions at the end of the 12^th Century. In scholarship Norman Sicily has long been seen as the preeminent example for the intermingling of various cultural influences. The hybridity of cultures in the high medieval Mezzogiorno is therefore compared to the situation in other Norman dominions in late 12^th Century Europe: England and in particular Normandy, where the transcultural element has never been focused on. The project centres on the interplay of different cultural flows in the takeovers of 1194 and 1204, particularly as evident in political culture: in structures of domination and social orders. But it also asks how the intellectual elites in those political entities reacted to the hybridizations of their cultural areas. In a comprehensive survey of the Norman historiography and a combination of various text genres this project therefore asks for the different collective identities that were forged for these particular dominions both before and after the takeovers. The European dimension of the Norman achievement should allow for insights into basic processes of the Europeanization of Europe.

Select Publications
[Joint Author]: Arbeitsforum C: Gewalt im Kontext der Kulturen, in: Mittelalter im Labor. Die Mediävistik testet Wege zu einer transkulturellen Europawissenschaft, ed. Michael Borgolte, Juliane Schiel, Bernd Schneidmüller and Annette Seitz (Europa im Mittelalter 10), Berlin 2008, p. 305-555.

Vergleich und Identität. Selbst- und Fremddeutung im Norden des mittelalterlichen Europa (Europa im Mittelalter), Berlin 2009 [PhD thesis, forthcoming].

Zwischen alter Religion und Christentum: Mehr als ein Glaubenswechsel, in: Damals 12/2008, p. 41-44.

Romanorum et regni Sicilie imperator. Zum Anspruch Kaiser Heinrichs VI. auf das normannische Königreich Sizilien, in: Archiv für Diplomatik 54 (2008), p. 37-46.

Der Prophet und der Kaiser. Staufische Herrschaftsvorstellungen am Ende des 12. Jahrhunderts [Article, forthcoming].

CV
Born 1977 in Lahr/Germany; M.A. in Medieval History, German Philology and Historical Auxiliary Sciences, University of Heidelberg 2005; PhD in Medieval History, University of Heidelberg 2008. Research Associate the Department of History at Heidelberg University and Participation in the “DFG Priority Programme 1173: Integration and Disintegration of Civilizations in Medieval Europe”, 2005-2008; Lecturer at the Department of History at the University of Heidelberg, 2007-2008.

Publications and activities registered in CRISTIN