Naming and Un-naming in Old English Literature PDF Download
Are you looking for read ebook online? Search for your book and save it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Download Naming and Un-naming in Old English Literature PDF full book. Access full book title Naming and Un-naming in Old English Literature by Jean Abbott. Download full books in PDF and EPUB format.
Author: Jean Abbott
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Names, English (Old), in literature
Languages : en
Pages : 226
Get Book Here
Book Description
Personal names, particularly historical ones, have long been subject to the unconscious biases of the modern scholars who study them. As a result, existing studies of Old English names have focused primarily on onomastic functions that are readily legible for modern readers, treating names as inter- and extratextual links, purveyors of etymological resonances, and, above all, referential labels for characters. In contrast, this dissertation investigates the ways in which the early medieval English experience of naming might diverge from modern expectations, using case studies and close textual analysis to explore what it means to read an Old English name—or any name—on its own terms. In the process, these case studies reveal a persistent anxiety about names that fail to perform their functions, a failure that leads to an utter onomastic negation discussed here as "un-naming." Chapters 1 and 2 are dedicated to Beowulf, the most well-studied Old English text and also one of the most onomastically dense. Chapter 1 challenges the assumption that names function primarily in a referential way, arguing that each instance of naming in this poem also becomes a means of signaling connection in its own right. Shifting to examine connectedness at the level of character, Chapter 2 recasts Beowulf's network of names as a means of controlling and containing anonymity, a measure that fails spectacularly when the anonymous, unconnected—and therefore un-named—dragon endangers not only the named social network within the poem, but also the audience outside of it. Chapter 3 explores the grammar of "being" and "calling" names in the Old English language, investigating the literary consequences of these naming strategies in a number of poems in the Exeter Book. While the "called" solutions of the Exeter Book Riddles help to construct the sense that an object inhabits its own proper place in the world, the prospect of "being" the names and pseudo-names in Deor, Wulf and Eadwacer, Widsith, and The Wanderer can lead to a horrifically indefinite, un-named existence. Finally, Chapter 4 argues that the names of the eponymous interlocutors of the Solomon and Saturn dialogue tradition act as a way of framing, authorizing, and otherwise containing the texts' "transgressive" qualities—a containment that ultimately shatters in Solomon and Saturn II when the monumental "Solomon" and "Saturn" who frame and authorize this dialogue split from the "Solomon" and "Saturn" who address each other as individuals. Together, these case studies demonstrate the stakes and consequences of naming in Old English literature, while also providing a model for more self-conscious and more deeply-contextualized inquiry into the meaning and function of literary personal names.
Author: Jean Abbott
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Names, English (Old), in literature
Languages : en
Pages : 226
Get Book Here
Book Description
Personal names, particularly historical ones, have long been subject to the unconscious biases of the modern scholars who study them. As a result, existing studies of Old English names have focused primarily on onomastic functions that are readily legible for modern readers, treating names as inter- and extratextual links, purveyors of etymological resonances, and, above all, referential labels for characters. In contrast, this dissertation investigates the ways in which the early medieval English experience of naming might diverge from modern expectations, using case studies and close textual analysis to explore what it means to read an Old English name—or any name—on its own terms. In the process, these case studies reveal a persistent anxiety about names that fail to perform their functions, a failure that leads to an utter onomastic negation discussed here as "un-naming." Chapters 1 and 2 are dedicated to Beowulf, the most well-studied Old English text and also one of the most onomastically dense. Chapter 1 challenges the assumption that names function primarily in a referential way, arguing that each instance of naming in this poem also becomes a means of signaling connection in its own right. Shifting to examine connectedness at the level of character, Chapter 2 recasts Beowulf's network of names as a means of controlling and containing anonymity, a measure that fails spectacularly when the anonymous, unconnected—and therefore un-named—dragon endangers not only the named social network within the poem, but also the audience outside of it. Chapter 3 explores the grammar of "being" and "calling" names in the Old English language, investigating the literary consequences of these naming strategies in a number of poems in the Exeter Book. While the "called" solutions of the Exeter Book Riddles help to construct the sense that an object inhabits its own proper place in the world, the prospect of "being" the names and pseudo-names in Deor, Wulf and Eadwacer, Widsith, and The Wanderer can lead to a horrifically indefinite, un-named existence. Finally, Chapter 4 argues that the names of the eponymous interlocutors of the Solomon and Saturn dialogue tradition act as a way of framing, authorizing, and otherwise containing the texts' "transgressive" qualities—a containment that ultimately shatters in Solomon and Saturn II when the monumental "Solomon" and "Saturn" who frame and authorize this dialogue split from the "Solomon" and "Saturn" who address each other as individuals. Together, these case studies demonstrate the stakes and consequences of naming in Old English literature, while also providing a model for more self-conscious and more deeply-contextualized inquiry into the meaning and function of literary personal names.
Author: Jean Abbott
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
Get Book Here
Book Description
Personal names, particularly historical ones, have long been subject to the unconscious biases of the modern scholars who study them. As a result, existing studies of Old English names have focused primarily on onomastic functions that are readily legible for modern readers, treating names as inter- and extratextual links, purveyors of etymological resonances, and, above all, referential labels for characters. In contrast, this dissertation investigates the ways in which the early medieval English experience of naming might diverge from modern expectations, using case studies and close textual analysis to explore what it means to read an Old English name--or any name--on its own terms. In the process, these case studies reveal a persistent anxiety about names that fail to perform their functions, a failure that leads to an utter onomastic negation discussed here as "un-naming." Chapters 1 and 2 are dedicated to Beowulf, the most well-studied Old English text and also one of the most onomastically dense. Chapter 1 challenges the assumption that names function primarily in a referential way, arguing that each instance of naming in this poem also becomes a means of signaling connection in its own right. Shifting to examine connectedness at the level of character, Chapter 2 recasts Beowulf's network of names as a means of controlling and containing anonymity, a measure that fails spectacularly when the anonymous, unconnected--and therefore un-named--dragon endangers not only the named social network within the poem, but also the audience outside of it. Chapter 3 explores the grammar of "being" and "calling" names in the Old English language, investigating the literary consequences of these naming strategies in a number of poems in the Exeter Book. While the "called" solutions of the Exeter Book Riddles help to construct the sense that an object inhabits its own proper place in the world, the prospect of "being" the names and pseudo-names in Deor, Wulf and Eadwacer, Widsith, and The Wanderer can lead to a horrifically indefinite, un-named existence. Finally, Chapter 4 argues that the names of the eponymous interlocutors of the Solomon and Saturn dialogue tradition act as a way of framing, authorizing, and otherwise containing the texts' "transgressive" qualities--a containment that ultimately shatters in Solomon and Saturn II when the monumental "Solomon" and "Saturn" who frame and authorize this dialogue split from the "Solomon" and "Saturn" who address each other as individuals. Together, these case studies demonstrate the stakes and consequences of naming in Old English literature, while also providing a model for more self-conscious and more deeply-contextualized inquiry into the meaning and function of literary personal names.
Author: Mats Algot Redin
Publisher: Legare Street Press
ISBN: 9781021797605
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Get Book Here
Book Description
This book examines the structure and usage of personal names in Old English that are not made up of more than one word. Through a comprehensive analysis of various sources, including legal documents, charters, and literary works, Redin sheds light on the cultural and social aspects that influenced the naming practices in Anglo-Saxon England. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
Author: Mats Redin
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781331935148
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 252
Get Book Here
Book Description
Excerpt from Studies on Uncompounded Personal Names in Old English: Inaugural Dissertation Several critics have recently drawn attention to the tendency shown in the works of certain scholars to explain the first members of English place-names as OE personal names, without regard to whether the alleged name is recorded in OE or not. This "epidemic of eponymitis" is, of course, above all due to the fact that in England this question has not been made the subject of a systematic investigation, as it has been, for instance, in Scandinavia; on the whole English place-onomatology has chiefly resulted in county monographs, whereas works dealing with general problems are remarkably few. That, under such circumstances, the handy expedient of interpreting an obscure member as a personal name is often made use of, is the more excusable since a reliable OE name book is still lacking. The deficiencies attached to Searle's Onomasticon Anglo-Saxonicum are but too well known. It would seem, then, that both in order to increase our knowledge of OE personal nomenclature as such, and also for the sake of future research in the field of place-names, one of the most urgent desiderata of English onomatology is that the OE personal names should be subjected to a critical examination, and especially those names which are not of the dithematic type, such as Wulfstan, Aelfric, Beaduhild. Names of the latter type are by far the more common and the more easily identified, even when they appear in ME or NE disguise. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
Author: Antonina Harbus
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004488138
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 230
Get Book Here
Book Description
Ideas about the human mind are culturally specific and over time vary in form and prominence. The Life of the Mind in Old English Poetry presents the first extensive exploration of Anglo-Saxon beliefs about the mind and how these views informed Old English poetry. It identifies in this poetry a particular cultural focus on the mental world and formulates a multivalent model of the mind behind it, as the seat of emotions, the site of temptation, the container of knowledge, and a heroic weapon. The Life of the Mind in Old English Poetry treats a wide range of Old English literary genres (in the context of their Latin sources and analogues where applicable) in order to discover how ideas about the mind shape the narrative, didactic, and linguistic design of poetic discourse. Particular attention is paid to the rich and slippery vernacular vocabulary for the mind which suggests a special interest in the subject in Old English poetry. The book argues that Anglo-Saxon poets were acutely conscious of mental functions and perceived the psychological basis not only of the cognitive world, but also of the emotions and of the spiritual life.
Author: Fran Colman
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191005185
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 323
Get Book Here
Book Description
This book examines personal names, including given and acquired (or nick-) names, and how they were used in Anglo-Saxon England. It discusses their etymologies, semantics, and grammatical behaviour, and considers their evolving place in Anglo-Saxon history and culture. From that culture survive thousands of names on coins, in manuscripts, on stone and other inscriptions. Names are important and their absence a stigma (Grendel's parents have no names); they may have particular functions in ritual and magic; they mark individuals, generally people but also beings with close human contact such as dogs, cats, birds, and horses; and they may provide indications of rank and gender. Dr Colman explores the place of names within the structure of Old English, their derivation, formation, and other linguistic behaviour, and compares them with the products of other Germanic (e.g., Present-day German) and non-Germanic (e.g., Ancient and Present-day Greek) naming systems. Old English personal names typically followed the Germanic system of elements based on common words like leof (adjective 'beloved') and wulf (noun 'wolf'), which give Leofa and Wulf, and often combined as in Wulfraed, (ræd noun, 'advice, counsel') or as in Leofing (with the diminutive suffix -ing). The author looks at the combinatorial and sequencing possibilities of these elements in name formation, and assesses the extent to which, in origin, names may be selected to express qualities manifested by, or expected in, an individual. She examines their different modes of inflection and the variable behaviour of names classified as masculine or feminine. The results of her wide-ranging investigation are provocative and stimulating.
Author: Leopold Wagner
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Names
Languages : en
Pages : 338
Get Book Here
Book Description
Author: David Lyle Jeffrey
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN: 9780802836342
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 1000
Get Book Here
Book Description
Over 15 years in the making, an unprecedented one-volume reference work. Many of today's students and teachers of literature, lacking a familiarity with the Bible, are largely ignorant of how Biblical tradition has influenced and infused English literature through the centuries. An invaluable research tool. Contains nearly 800 encyclopedic articles written by a distinguished international roster of 190 contributors. Three detailed annotated bibliographies. Cross-references throughout.
Author: Ernest Weekley
Publisher: London J. Murray 1914.
ISBN:
Category : Names, Personal
Languages : en
Pages : 286
Get Book Here
Book Description
Author: Mats Redin
Publisher: Wentworth Press
ISBN: 9781363670222
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 248
Get Book Here
Book Description
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.