Companion To Anglo-Saxon Literature, A

Description:
This stimulating Companion brings together leading scholars from America, the Antipodes, and Europe to point the way ahead for Anglo-Saxon studies. The scope of the volume is unparalleled, embracing not only the literature of the period, but also the cultural background and the discipline of Anglo-Saxon studies: past, present and future. The chapters are linked into five sections covering contexts, readings, genres, intertextualities and debates. The combination of the discussion of primary material and manuscript sources with critical analysis and readings breaks new ground: fresh approaches are offered, genres of writing not normally studies are opened up, and readers are shown how texts can be read in their particular cultural milieu. The complete volume is essential reading for upper-level students or faculty who want a current and challenging overview of the field.

Review:
"The latest addition to Blackwell's comprehensive surveys of literature and culture, this volume offers an impressive array of essays by reputable scholars ... This Companion will be a valuable introduction for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students and useful resource for faculty."Choice "A Companion to Anglo-Saxon Literature is an impressive anthology of erudite essays written by scholars around the world on the topic of Anglo-Saxon literature, particularly that of the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries. Prose, poetry, religious, and secular literature are all discussed at length in this college-level analysis and presentation, which is very highly recommended for academic literary studies in general, and medieval studies in reference collections in particular." The Midwest Book Review "Many of the world's leading Anglo-Saxonists have contributed to this volume which provides a very useful overview of current preoccupations of those who study and teach Old English literature." Literature and History "Stimulating introductions that bring out the wider potential of their topics for understanding the Anglo-Saxon past ... much to offer the more experienced reader as well as the novice." Literature and History

Table of Contents:
PrefaceAcknowledgementsAbbreviationsPart I. Contexts and Perspectives:1. An Introduction to the Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Vernacular English. (Elaine Treharne and Phillip Pulsiano)2. An Introduction to the Corpus of Anglo-Latin Literature. (Joseph P. McGowan)3. Transmission of Literature and Learning: Anglo Saxon Scribal Culture. (Jonathan Wilcox)4. Authorship and Anonymity. (Mary Swan)5. Audience(s), Reception, Literacy. (Hugh Magennis)6. Anglo-Saxon Manuscript Production: Issues of Making and Using. (Michelle P. Brown)Part II. Readings: Cultural Framework and Heritage:7. The Germanic Background. (Patrizia Lendinara)8. Religious Context9. The Benedictine Reform and Beyond. (Joyce Hill)10. Legal and Documentary Writings. (Carole Hough)11. Scientific and Medical Writings. (Stephanie Hollis)12. Prayers, Glosses and Glossaries. (Phillip Pulsiano)Part III.Genre and Modes:13. Religious Prose. (Roy M. Liuzza)14. Religious Poetry. (Patrick W. Conner)15. Secular Prose. (Donald G. Scragg)16. Secular Poetry: Fred Robinson.17. Anglo-Latin. (Joseph P. McGowan)Part IV. Intertextualities: Sources and Influences:18. Biblical and Patristic Learning (Tom Hall)19. The Irish Tradition. (Charles E. Wright)20. Germanic Influences. (Rolf Bremmer)21. Scandinavian Relations. (Robert E. Bjork)Part V. Debates and Issues:22. English in the Post-Conquest Period. (Elaine Treharne)23. Anglo-Saxon Studies: Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries. (Tim Graham)24. Anglo-Saxon Studies in the Nineteenth Century: England, Denmark, America. (J. R. Hall)25. Anglo-Saxon Studies in the Nineteenth Century: Germany, Austria, Switzerland. (Hans Sauer)26. By the Numbers: Anglo-Saxon Scholarship at the Century's End. (Allen Frantzen)27. The New Millennium. (Nicholas Howe)Selected Further ReadingIndex

Author Biography:
Phillip Pulsiano is late Professor of English at Villanova University. He authored numerous articles on Old and Middle English poetry and prose, and co-edited the Garland Encyclopaedia of Medieval Scandinavia (with Paul Acker and Kirsten Wolf). He had completed the first volume of The Old English Psalters (for Toronto University Press), and had undertaken significant research on Latin female saints' lives from the medieval period, and (with Joseph P. McGowan) the prose texts in the Beowulf-manuscript: work that will be published posthumously. Elaine M. Trehame is Reader in Medieval Literature at the University of Leicester. She is author of The Old English Life of St Nicholas with the Old English Life of St Giles (1997), and co-editor of Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts and their Heritage (with Philip Pulsiano), Rewriting Old English in the Twelfth Century (with Mary Swan), past editor of The Year's Work in English Studies and editor of Old and Middle English: An Anthology (Blackwell, 2000). She is Chair of the English Association.