New Approaches to Old English Biblical Poetry

Sponsoring Organization(s)

Dept. of English, United States Naval Academy

Organizer Name

Jill Fitzgerald

Organizer Affiliation

United States Naval Academy

Presider Name

Jill Fitzgerald

Paper Title 1

Eðylstæf and Inheritance in the Old English Genesis

Presenter 1 Name

Kelly Williams

Presenter 1 Affiliation

Univ. of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign

Paper Title 2

The Ethic of Peace in Genesis A

Presenter 2 Name

Daniel Anlezark

Presenter 2 Affiliation

Univ. of Sydney

Paper Title 3

Entering the Christian Heroic Economy: Gender, Public Behaviors, and Gift Exchange in the Old English Juliana and Judith

Presenter 3 Name

Michelle E. Parsons

Presenter 3 Affiliation

Purdue Univ.

Start Date

13-5-2016 1:30 PM

Session Location

Fetzer 2030

Description

This session examines fresh methodological and critical approaches to Old English poems recounting both Old and New Testament events. Biblical poems such as ‘Genesis A,’ Genesis B,’ ‘Exodus,’ ‘Daniel,’ and ‘Judith’ (to name a few) continue to invite scholarly attention because they reveal predominant Anglo-Saxon attitudes towards issues such as lordship, land, inheritance, invasion, migration, corruption, warfare, rebellion, and conquest. Papers will address sources (patristic, apocryphal, liturgical, iconographic), cultural and historical contexts, manuscript contexts, translation and the vernacular transmission of biblical concepts, how biblical poems offer insights into early medieval social groups, reforming communities, Christian identity and subjectivity, and how Anglo-Saxons understood their place within salvation history.

Jill Fitzgerald