Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonard Neidorf
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Rational Belief ◽  
English Poet ◽  
Critical Scholarship

This chapter raises the main philological questions regarding the transmission of Beowulf. It introduces the prevailing scholarship on the poem’s philology, such as the duration of its transmission, the detection of scribal errors, and so on. Determining whether a passage in the transmitted text of Beowulf is corrupt or genuine is a matter of rational belief, this chapter argues. Such a process is centered on the following question whether or not it is more reasonable to believe that the passage was genuinely composed by an Old English poet or if it is more reasonable to believe that it is the outcome of scribal error. In addition, the chapter also discusses further aims on proceeding with a text-critical scholarship of Beowulf.

Bright Voice of Praise: An Old English Poet-Patron Convention

2011 ◽  
Vol 108 (3) ◽  
pp. 299-319
Author(s):  
Heather Maring
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
English Poet

Germanisches Karaoke

2006 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-76
Author(s):  
Markus Edler
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Literary History ◽  
English Poem ◽  
English Poet ◽  
Vernacular Poetry ◽  
Historia Ecclesiastica

In seiner Historia ecclesiastica führt Beda Venerabilis den Beginn der englischen Literaturgeschichte und die Berufung des ersten englischsprachigen Dichters im Kontext einer Inspirationsszene vor. Der Aufsatz erklärt den verblüffenden Umstand, daß Beda statt des ursprünglichen Wortlauts eine lateinische Paraphrase des Gedichts wiedergibt, mit dem Bemühen Bedas, die nichtchristlichen Implikationen der Inspiration zurückzudrängen und die Semantik volkssprachiger Dichtung zu christianisieren. In his ›Historia ecclesiastica‹, Beda Venerabilis presents the origins of English literary history and the vocation of the first English poet within the context of non-Christian inspiration. The article argues that the irritating fact that Beda omits the original wording of the first Old English poem and gives a Latin paraphrase instead, is part of a strategy to defy the pagan implications of inspiration and to christianize the semantics of vernacular poetry.

The Figure of Constantine the Great in Cynewulf's ‘Elene’

Traditio ◽  
1981 ◽  
Vol 37 ◽  
pp. 161-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gordon Whatley
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
English Poet ◽  
Principal Source ◽  
Nocturnal Vision ◽  
The Cross

The first two hundred lines of Cynewulf's Elene deal not with Elene's finding of the Holy Cross but with the events that lead to the conversion of her son, the emperor Constantine. They recount the invasion of his kingdom by a horde of Goths, Huns, and Franks; his fear and despair at the prospect of doing battle with such a vastly superior force; his nocturnal vision of the cross with its famous promise of victory; the crushing defeat he inflicts on the invaders the next day; his triumphant return to Rome, where he learns from his counsellors that the cross is the sign of God; his evangelization by a group of Christians; and his subsequent baptism. Only after all this does the quest for the True Cross get underway, at Constantine's bidding. Although the fifth-century Inventio Sanctae Crucis, Cynewulf's principal source, narrates these events in a few lines of bare, prosaic Latin, the Old English poet has turned them into the most extensive piece of amplification in the whole work, chiefly, but not entirely, by providing detailed descriptions of the invading and defending armies, and of the battle itself, in recognizably formulaic style with much skillful repetition and variation.

The Politics of Repressed Guilt

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Leeb
Keyword(s):  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
National Socialist ◽  
Theoretical Concepts ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
Critical Scholarship ◽  
Important Addition ◽  
Defensive Mechanisms ◽  
The Right

Through a critical appropriation of Hannah Arendt, and a more sympathetic engagement with Theodor W. Adorno and psychoanalysis, this book develops a new theoretical approach to understanding Austrians’ repression of their collaboration with National Socialist Germany. Drawing on original, extensive archival research, from court documents on Nazi perpetrators to public controversies on theater plays and museums, the book exposes the defensive mechanisms Austrians have used to repress individual and collective political guilt, which led to their failure to work through their past. It exposes the damaging psychological and political consequences such failure has had and continues to have for Austrian democracy today—such as the continuing electoral growth of the right-wing populist Freedom Party in Austria, which highlights the timeliness of the book. However, the theoretical concepts and practical suggestions the book introduces to counteract the repression of individual and collective political guilt are relevant beyond the Austrian context. It shows us that only when individuals and nations live up to guilt are they in a position to take responsibility for past crimes, show solidarity with the victims of crimes, and prevent the emergence of new crimes. Combining theoretical insights with historical analysis, The Politics of Repressed Guilt is an important addition to critical scholarship that explores the pathological implications of guilt repression for democratic political life.

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