Niles John D. Old English Literature: A Guide to Criticism with Selected Readings

Wiley Blackwell, 2016. — 355 p. — (Blackwell Guides to Criticism). — ISBN: 9781118598832.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.Main Currents in Twentieth‐Century Criticism.
Old English Studies 1901–1975.
The Earlier Twentieth Century.
Literary Criticism: A Slow Start.
Two Scholars Representative of their Eras.
New Directions after the Second World War.
Changing Currents in BeowulfStudies.
Key Works from the Early Seventies.
Anglo‐Saxon Lore and Learning.
Literacy and Latinity.
Anglo‐Latin Literature: Background or Mainstream?
Education in Two Languages.
The Student in the Classroom.
The Venerable Bede.
A Selection from the Criticism.
Excerpt: Joyce Hill, ‘Learning Latin in Anglo‐Saxon England: Traditions, Texts and Techniques, (2003).
Textuality and Cultural Transformations.
The Anglo‐Saxon Book: Icon or Pragmatic Object?
Writerly Self‐Reflexivity.
Reading Old English Texts in their Manuscript Context.
Authors and Scribes: The Flux of Texts.
From Latin to Old English: Translation or Transformation?
Source Studies and the Culture of Translation.
A Selection from the Criticism.
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).
Orality.
Parry, Lord, and their Legacy.
Oral Poetics and Noetics.
A Selection from the Criticism.
Selection: Donald K. Fry, ‘The Memory of Cædmon’ (1981).
Heroic Tradition.
Short Poems on Legendary Themes.
Brunanburh, Maldon, and the Critics.
Beowulfand the Critics.
Indeterminacy and its Discontents.
A Selection from the Criticism.
Selection: Ernst Leisi, ‘Gold and Human Worth in Beowulf ’, first published as ‘Gold und Manneswert im Beowulf ’ (1952).
Other Topics and Approaches.
Style.
A Selection from the Criticism.
Selection: J.R. Hall, ‘Perspective and Wordplay in the Old English Rune Poem’ (1977).
Theme.
A Selection from the Criticism.
Selection: Hugh Magennis, ‘Images of Laughter in Old English Poetry, with Particular Reference to the Hleahtor Weraof The Seafarer’ (1992).
Genre and Gender.
Genre.
Gender.
A Selection from the Criticism.
Selection: Lisa M.C. Weston, ‘Women’s Medicine, Women’s Magic: The Old English Metrical Childbirth Charms’ (1995).
Saints’ Lives and Christian Devotion.
A Selection from the Criticism.
Selection: Edward B. Irving, Jr, ‘Crucifixion Witnessed, or Dramatic Interaction in The Dream of the Rood ’ (1986).
Ælfric.
A Selection from the Criticism.
Excerpt: Malcolm Godden, ‘Apocalypse and Invasion in Late Anglo‐Saxon England’ (1994).
Translating, Editing, and Making it New.
Translating.
Editing.
Making it New.
A Selection from the Criticism.
Selection: Joshua Byron Smith, ‘Borges and Old English’.