Jonathan Wilcox

Humour in Old English Literature deploys modern theories of humour to explore the style and content of surviving writing from early medieval England. The book analyses Old English riddles, wisdom literature, runic writing, the deployment of rhymes, and humour in heroic poetry, hagiography, and romance. Drawing on a fine-tuned understanding of literary technique, the book presents a revisionist view of Old English literature, partly by reclaiming often-neglected texts and partly by uncovering ironies and embarrassments within well-established works, including Beowulf. Most surprisingly, Jonathan Wilcox engages the large body of didactic literature, pinpointing humour in two anonymous homilies along with extensive use in saints’ lives. Each chapter ends by revealing a different audience that would have shared in the laughter. Wilcox suggests that the humour of Old English literature has been scantily covered in past scholarship because modern readers expect a dour and serious corpus. Humour in Old English Literature aims to break that cycle by highlighting works and moments that are as entertaining now as they were then.

Communities of Laughter in Early Medieval England

Humour in Old English Literature

Diversity is the spice of life, and the highly regarded Cultures of the World series celebrates just that in fully updated, and expanded editions. As has always been true of these outstanding titles, an abundance of vibrant photographs -- including those new to this edition -- stimulate the imaginations of young readers as they travel the globe. A new chapter on the environment focuses on politics and economics as well as on endangered species and the effects of industrialization. Additional authentic recipes add general interest while new maps offer further, easy-to-find facts in "About the Geography, " "About the Culture" and "About the Economy" sections.

Iceland

Alice Jorgensen

Frances McCormack

Research into the emotions is beginning to gain momentum in Anglo-Saxon studies. In order to integrate early medieval Britain into the wider scholarly research into the history of emotions (a major theme in other fields and a key field in interdisciplinary studies), this volume brings together established scholars, who have already made significant contributions to the study of Anglo-Saxon mental and emotional life, with younger scholars. The volume presents a tight focus - on emotion (rather than psychological life more generally), on Anglo-Saxon England and on language and literature - with contrasting approaches that will open up debate. The volume considers a range of methodologies and theoretical perspectives, examines the interplay of emotion and textuality, explores how emotion is conveyed through gesture, interrogates emotions in religious devotional literature, and considers the place of emotion in heroic culture. Each chapter asks questions about what is culturally distinctive about emotion in Anglo-Saxon England and what interpretative moves have to be made to read emotion in Old English texts, as well as considering how ideas about and representations of emotion might relate to lived experience. Taken together the essays in this collection indicate the current state of the field and preview important work to come. By exploring methodologies and materials for the study of Anglo-Saxon emotions, particularly focusing on Old English language and literature, it will both stimulate further study within the discipline and make a distinctive contribution to the wider interdisciplinary conversation about emotions.

Reading the Heart in Old English Language, Literature and Culture

Anglo-Saxon Emotions

Hugh Magennis

The Power of Words: Anglo-Saxon Studies Presented to Donald G. Scragg on his Seventieth Birthday edited by Jonathan Wilcox and Hugh Magennis will find its place on the same shelf with these and other such valuable tomes in the discipline. This is a complex and carefully edited book, that showcases the work of some of Professor Scragg's best students and most admiring professional friends. The contents range from several studies in homiletic literature, one of Professor Scragg's own passions, to other of his pursuits, including editing theory and orthography. These are not, however, derivative essays that recommend a single adjustment in a reading or to a source study; instead, they are studies that do what Professor Scragg himself did: they observe clues to larger realities, and they point the way to a broader comprehension of our discipline and its several methodologies.

Anglo-Saxon Studies Presented to Donald G. Scragg on His Seventieth Birthday

The Power of Words

This collection of essays makes an original contribution to medieval manuscript studies through deep engagement with the material side of book creation. The volume brings together major scholars of medieval manuscripts with leading contemporary book artists. The result is a ground-breaking collection which will be of interest both for its methodological implications and for the insights that the case studies provide. In a sequence of interconnected essays, experts in the field of literature, history, art, and manuscript studies enact readings of medieval manuscripts that incorporate extreme attention to the materiality of the object of their study. While the digital revolution has provided unparalleled visual access to medieval manuscripts, these essays are attentive to what has got left behind-not just the aura of the original, but also the engagement of the other senses, such as the feel of the binding, the heft of the volume, the smell of the parchment, or the sound of the pages. By bringing together experienced medievalist scholars with practicing book artists of today, this volume brings back an artisanal sense of the complete book to an understanding of medieval manuscripts.

Jonathan Wilcox

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