1. Oe Literature

Front 1

periodization / canonization

Back 1

always comes with "normative bias"

Literature is a mirror of, and an agent in, broader cultural developments...

Front 2

the origins of English studies as a discipline (“When?“)

Back 2

the canon of “English“ literature was only ‘institutionalized‘
in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries

Front 3

different meanings of “literature“

Back 3

- “Literariness” is not a natural, ahistorical, essential quality of texts; people haven‘t always thought of particular texts as being “literary”

- Specialization of the “literary” and narrowing of the definition of “literature” over the course of the centuries

Front 4

oral vs. written literature

Back 4

ORAL LITERATURE
- face-to-face interaction
- Orality is based on participation and interaction
- unique performances

WRITTEN LITERATURE
- more stable and easier to conserve
- circulated beyond its immediate cultural
context
- much wider dissemination

Front 5

Genres and Forms of OE literature

Back 5

- Alliterative verse
- Epic poetry

- Elegies

- religious poetry
- interplay of Christian and pagan elements in OE lit.

Front 6

Alliterative verse

Back 6

- can contain any number of syllables
- falls into two half lines
- each half lines contains two stressed sounds
- alliterations linking two half lines

E.g. Caedmon‘s song:

He ærest sceop ielda bearnum
heofon to hrofe halig Scyppend
ða middangeard moncynnes Weard

Front 7

Epic poetry

Back 7

Beowulf as an Epic

• a long poem usually about the exploits of warriors and heroes

• Culturally specific forms:

1) Beowulf more episodic than classical epics
(e.g. the Odyssey);

2) in OE literature, heroes are often seen as
belonging to a remote past (->nostalgic, elegiac
mood)

- in parts of Beowulf the significance of the OE oral tradition shows in the form of the "scop"

Front 8

Elegies

Back 8

- Mixing of Anglo-Saxon and Christian elements

- "The Seafarer"

- "Wulf and Eadwacer”

- up and down fortunes of life, gloomy in mood

- Personal voices? Lyric subjectivity?

Front 9

Religious poetry

Back 9

- “The Dream of the Rood”:

-> experiencing the Passion (animistic poetry)

-> public function of poetry ("tell this vision to men")

Front 10

Riddles

Back 10

- close to 100 riddles have survived
- central part of Anglo-Saxon literature
- notable for using “kennings” (figurative compound words)

I am fire-fretted and I flirt with Wind;
my limbs are light-freighted I am lapped in flame.
I am storm-stacked and I strain to fly;
I'm a grove leaf-bearing and a glowing coal.

Front 11

interplay of Christian and pagan elements in OE lit.

Back 11

Christianized Paganism?

Paganized Christianity?