Structures of Opposition in Old English Poems

Structures of Opposition in Old English Poems PDF Author: Marie Nelson
Publisher: Rodopi
ISBN: 9789051831344
Category : Civilization, Anglo-Saxon, in literature
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Structures of Opposition in Old English Poems

Structures of Opposition in Old English Poems PDF Author: Marie Nelson
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004488618
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Thought and Action in Old English Poetry and Prose

Thought and Action in Old English Poetry and Prose PDF Author: Eleni Ponirakis
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 1501514458
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 235

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Book Description
Cognitive approaches to early medieval texts have tended to focus on the mind in isolation. By examining the interplay between mental and physical acts deployed in Old English poetry and prose, this study identifies new patterns and offers new perspectives. In these texts, the performance of right or wrong action is not linked to natural inclination dictated by birth; it is the fruit of right or wrong thinking. The mind consciously directed and controlled is open to external influences, both human and diabolical. This struggle to produce right thought and action reflects an emerging democratization of heroism that crosses societal and gender boundaries, becoming intertwined with socio-political, soteriological, and cultural meaning. In a study of influential prose texts, including the Alfredian translations and the sermons of Ælfric, alongside close readings of three poems from different genres – The Seafarer, The Battle of Maldon, and Juliana –, Ponirakis demonstrates how early medieval authors create patterns of interaction between the mental and the physical. These provide hidden keys to meaning which, once found, unlock new readings of much studied texts. In addition, these patterns of balance, distribution, and opposition, reveal a startling similarity of approach across genre and form, taking the discussion of the early medieval conception of the mind, soul, and emotion, not to mention conventional generic divisions, onto new ground.

Direct Speech in Beowulf and Other Old English Narrative Poems

Direct Speech in Beowulf and Other Old English Narrative Poems PDF Author: Élise Louviot
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1843844346
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 298

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Book Description
A new examination of the little-studied phenomena of Direct Speech in Old English poetry. Some of the most celebrated passages of Old English poetry are speeches: Beowulf and Unferth's verbal contest, Hrothgar's words of advice, Satan's laments, Juliana's words of defiance, etc. Yet Direct Speech, as a stylistic device, has remained largely under-examined and under-theorized in studies of the corpus. As a consequence, many analyses are unduly influenced by anachronistic conceptions of Direct Speech, leading to problematic interpretations, not least concerning irony and implicit characterisation. This book uses linguistic theories to reassess the role of Direct Speech in Old English narrative poetry. Beowulf is given a great deal of attention, because it is amajor poem and because it is the focus of much of the existing scholarship on this subject, but it is examined in a broader poetic context: the poem belongs to a wider tradition and thus needs to be understood in that context. The texts examined include several major Old English narrative poems, in particular the two Genesis, Christ and Satan, Andreas, Elene, Juliana and Guthlac A. Elise Louviot is a Lecturer at the University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne (France) and a specialist of Old English poetry. Her research interests include orality, tradition, formulas and the linguistic expression of subjectivity.

Maxims in Old English Poetry

Maxims in Old English Poetry PDF Author: Paul Cavill
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 9780859915410
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
A study of maxims - what they are, why and when they are used - based on detailed investigation of issues, texts and formulas.

Runes and Roman Letters in Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts

Runes and Roman Letters in Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts PDF Author: Victoria Symons
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110491923
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 245

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Book Description
This book presents the first comprehensive study of Anglo-Saxon manuscript texts containing runic letters. To date there has been no comprehensive study of these works in a single volume, although the need for such an examination has long been recognized. This is in spite of a growing academic interest in the mise-en-page of early medieval manuscripts. The texts discussed in this study include Old English riddles and elegies, the Cynewulfian poems, charms, Solomon and Saturn I, and the Old English Rune Poem. The focus of the discussion is on the literary analysis of these texts in their palaeographic and runological contexts. Anglo-Saxon authors and scribes did not, of course, operate within a vacuum, and so these primary texts are considered alongside relevant epigraphic inscriptions, physical objects, and historical documents. Victoria Symons argues that all of these runic works are in various ways thematically focused on acts of writing, visual communication, and the nature of the written word. The conclusion that emerges over the course of the book is that, when encountered in the context of Anglo-Saxon manuscripts, runic letters consistently represent the written word in a way that Roman letters do not.

Anglo-Saxon England: Volume 20

Anglo-Saxon England: Volume 20 PDF Author: Michael Lapidge
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521413800
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 332

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Book Description
This volume illustrates some of the exciting paths of enquiry in Anglo-Saxon studies.

Old English Literature

Old English Literature PDF Author: John D. Niles
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118598830
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
This review of the critical reception of Old English literature from 1900 to the present moves beyond a focus on individual literary texts so as to survey the different schools, methods, and assumptions that have shaped the discipline. Examines the notable works and authors from the period, including Beowulf, the Venerable Bede, heroic poems, and devotional literature Reinforces key perspectives with excerpts from ten critical studies Addresses questions of medieval literacy, textuality, and orality, as well as style, gender, genre, and theme Embraces the interdisciplinary nature of the field with reference to historical studies, religious studies, anthropology, art history, and more

The Crows behind the Plough

The Crows behind the Plough PDF Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004489126
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 183

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The Textuality of Old English Poetry

The Textuality of Old English Poetry PDF Author: Carol Braun Pasternack
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521465496
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
This study constructs a reading of Old English poetry which takes up issues in poststructuralist theory, including intertextuality, work versus text and the author. The modern reader knows this literature as a discrete number of poems, set up and printed in units punctuated as modern sentences and with titles inserted by modern editors. Carol Braun Pasternack offers an alternative approach which takes into account the format of the verse as it exists in the manuscripts, using the term 'inscribed' to define texts which are situated between oral inheritance and print. In a detailed examination of texts throughout the canon she explores the ways in which readers construct poems in the process of reading and in addition she extends her analysis to the question of authorship, arguing that the texts do not imply an author but rather imply tradition as the source of their authority.

Old English Wisdom Poetry

Old English Wisdom Poetry PDF Author: Russell Gilbert Poole
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd
ISBN: 9780859915304
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 436

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Book Description
Bibliography and guide to scholarly literature on the genre of Old English wisdom poetry. Wisdom literature played a crucial role in the evolution of traditional societies, contributing to the structure of society and to the acceptance of new ideas within a culture, a function that has become increasingly understood. Old English wisdom literature is the focus of this volume, which offers an bibliography of the scholarly criticism between 1800 and 1990 of a group of largely secular poems comprising the metrical Charms, The Fortunes of Men, The Gifts of Men, Homiletic Fragments I and II, Maxims I and II, The Order of the World, Precepts, the metrical Proverbs, the Riddles of the Exeter Book, the Rune Poem, Solomon and Saturn, and Vainglory. A General Introduction investigates debates between scholars and establishes overall trends; it is followed by the bibliography proper, divided into chapters, each with its own introduction, focusing on a major text or collection of texts, with entries arranged chronologically. Dr RUSSELL POOLEteaches in the School of English and Media Studies at Massey University, New Zealand.