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Informationen zum Autor John D. Niles is the Frederic G. Cassidy Professor of Humanities, Emeritus, at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and Professor Emeritus of English at the University of California, Berkeley. A former President of the International Society of Anglo-Saxonists, he is the author or editor of a dozen books on Old English literature and related topics, including The Idea of Anglo-Saxon England 1066??????-?1901: Remembering, Forgetting, Deciphering, and Renewing the Past (Wiley Blackwell, 2015) and Beowulf: The Poem and Its Tradition (1983). Klappentext 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 Zusammenfassung 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. Inhaltsverzeichnis Preface and Acknowledgements viii Abbreviations xii Part I Main Currents in Twentieth-Century Criticism 1 1 Old English Studies 1901-1975 3 The Earlier Twentieth Century 4 Literary Criticism: A Slow Start 8 Two Scholars Representative of their Eras 10 New Directions after the Second World War 16 Changing Currents in Beowulf Studies 20 Key Works from the Early Seventies 32 Part II Anglo?-Saxon Lore and Learning 41 2 Literacy and Latinity 43 Anglo?-Latin Literature: Background or Mainstream? 44 Education in Two Languages 52 The Student in the Classroom 55 The Venerable Bede 58 A Selection from the Criticism 62 Excerpt: Joyce Hill, 'Learning Latin in Anglo?-Saxon England: Traditions, Texts and Techniques, (2003) 64 3 Textuality and Cultural Transformations 76 The Anglo?-Saxon Book: Icon or Pragmatic Object? 78 Writerly Self?-Reflexivity 81 Reading Old English Texts in their Manuscript Context 85 Authors and Scribes: The Flux of Texts 88 From Latin to Old English: Translation or Transformation? 92 Source Studies and the Culture of Translation 96 A Selection from the Criticism 100 Excerpt: M.B. Parkes, 'The Palaeography of the Parker Manuscript of the Chronicle, Laws, and Sedulius, and Historiography at Winchester in the Late Ninth and Tenth Centuries' (1976) 101 4 Orality 112 Parry, Lord, and their Legacy 116 Oral Poetics and Noetics 120 A Selection from the Criticism 126 Selection: Donald K. Fry, 'The Memory of Cædmon' (1981) 127 5 Heroic Tradition 136 Short Poems on Legendary Themes 139 Brunanburh, Maldon, and the Critics 142 Beowulf and the Critics 149 Indeterminacy and its Discontents 167 A Selection from the Criticism 171 Selection: Ernst Leisi, 'Gold and Human Worth in Beowulf ', first published as 'Gold und Manneswert im Beowulf ' (1952) 173 Part III Other Topics and Approaches 185 6 Style 187 A Selection from the Criticism 192 Selection: J.R. Hall, 'Perspective and Wordplay in the Old English Rune Poem' (1977) 194 7 Theme 203 A Selection from the Criticism 207 ...
