A History of Old English Literature

ISBN-13: 9781405121811 / Angielski / Miękka / 2004 / 360 str.

Blackwell Publishers

Opis

This timely introduction to Old English literature focuses on the production and reception of Old English texts, and on their relation to Anglo-Saxon history and culture.

• Introduces Old English texts and considers their relation to Anglo-Saxon culture.
  
• Responds to renewed emphasis on historical and cultural contexts in the field of medieval studies.
  
• Treats virtually the entire range of textual types preserved in Old English.
  
• Considers the production, reception and uses of Old English texts.
  
• Integrates the Anglo-Latin backgrounds crucial to understanding Old English literature.
  
• Offers very extensive bibliographical guidance.
  
• Demonstrates that Anglo-Saxon studies is uniquely placed to contribute to current literary debates.

Recenzje

Now the oldest English texts have a literary history for the twenty–first century. One of the chief virtues of A History of Old English Literature is the rich elaboration of contexts, extending from the manuscripts to the literary and intellectual world of Anglo–Saxon England, to the early modern criticism, and to the most recent critical reception.

Professor Daniel Donoghue, HarvardUniversity

Spis treści

List of Illustrations vi

Preface vii

Introduction

Anglo–Saxon England and Its Literature: A Social History 1

1 The Chronology and Varieties of Old English Literature 36

2 Literature of the Alfredian Period 48

3 Homilies 70

4 Saints Legends, by Rachel S. Anderson 87

5 Biblical Literature 106

6 Liturgical and Devotional Texts 120

7 Legal, Scientific, and Scholastic Works 148

8 Wisdom Literature and Lyric Poetry 164

9 Germanic Legend and Heroic Lay 193

Conclusion

Making Old English New: Anglo–Saxonism and the Cultural Work of Old English Literature 225

Notes 235

Works Cited 269

Index 339

O autorze

R. D. Fulk is Class of 1964 Chancellor s Professor of English at Indiana University. He is the editor of Interpretations of Beowulf: A Critical Anthology (1991), author of A History of Old English Meter (1992), co–editor of Eight Old English Poems (third edition, 2001), and co–editor of the fourth edition of F. Klaeber s Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg (forthcoming).

Christopher M. Cain is Assistant Professor of English at Towson University, Maryland.

Rachel S. Anderson is an Assistant Professor at Grand Valley State University, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Blurb

Recent years have witnessed renewed emphasis on historicism in medieval studies. This timely introduction responds to that trend, focusing on the production and reception of Old English texts, and on their relation to Anglo–Saxon history and culture.

The book presents a wider range of material than is usual in English literary histories. It not only covers an intriguing range of genres, from riddles and cryptograms to allegory and romance, but into this coverage it also integrates discussion of Anglo–Latin texts which are crucial to understanding the development of Old English literature. Its extensive bibliographical coverage of scholarship devotes special attention to studies of the past 15 years, while a retrospective section outlines the reception of the Anglo–Saxons and their literature in later periods.

Throughout their narrative, the authors champion Anglo–Saxon studies, contending that it is uniquely placed to contribute to current debates about literature s relation to history and culture.