Proseminar: Old English Shorter Poems
Fr. 14.00-16.00
Geb. 23.21 Raum U1.69                                                       Beginn: 19.10.2001
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A great number of the so-called ”Old English Shorter Poems” are included in the most widely used Old English teaching anthologies and are therefore canonized among the highlights of Anglo-Saxon poetry. This holds true for The Dream of the Rood, The Wife’s Lament, The Husband’s Message, Wulf and Eadwacer, Deor, Widsith, The Wanderer, The Seafarer, Vainglory, The Order of the World, and many others.

In our seminar we will read and discuss The Wanderer, some Riddles, The Wife’s Lament and The Husband’s Message, Wulf and Eadwacer, The Ruin, and The Order of the World. All these poems are contained in the Exeter Book and are easily available at the Labyrinth Library: Old English. www.georgetown.edu/labyrinth/library/oe/exeter.html

Apart from a close reading, formal analysis and functional interpretation of these poems the course will include a unit of theoretical reflection during which we will discuss not only the dominating critical approaches such as New Criticism, exegetical criticism, and the oral formulaic theory, but also more recent approaches such as feminist criticism, speech act theory, deconstructive and other post-structural approaches, as well as reception theory, historicism and materialist criticism.

Thus, this course has two major objectives. On the one hand you shall be made familiar with this specific text group of Old English poetry and on the other you shall learn how to apply common theories and methods of criticism and at the same time reflect upon your own interpretations.

We will provide additional materials and perhaps a news forum on the university's BSCW-Server to which you can be invited, if you send your name and a valid email-address to:    holteir@phil-fak.uni-duesseldorf.de

Preparatory reading:

Most poems are edited in most standard anthologies of Old English poetry, e.g.:

Mitchell, Bruce. An Invitation to Old English and Anglo-Saxon England. Oxford: Blackwell 1995.
Mitchell, Bruce and Fred C. Robinson. A Guide to Old English. 4th ed. revised with prose and verse, texts and glossary. Oxford: Blackwell 1986.

Translations are available in:

Bradley, S .A. J. (Ed.). Anglo-Saxon Poetry. London: Dent & Sons 1995.

A good collection of critical studies is:

Katherine O’Brien O’Keeffe (Ed.) Old English Shorter Poems: Basic Readings. New York and London: Garland 1994. (31 ang c700 O41)

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Voraussetzungen: Introduction to English Medieval  Studies -
                           Part I: General and Part II: Old English
Leistungsnachweis: wahlweise: Klausur, mündliche Prüfung, Referat, Hausarbeit
Veranstaltungstyp: Wahlpflicht M.A./Prom.; SII: B1,2

Der Inhalt der Lehrveranstaltung ist geeignet für die Zwischenprüfung
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©  Rainer Holtei
last updated
20.09.2009

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