New Comparative Approaches to Anglo-Saxon Literature: Celtic, Germanic, Latin I
Sponsoring Organization(s)
Special Session
Organizer Name
Andrew Scheil, Stephen Harris
Organizer Affiliation
Univ. of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Univ. of Massachusetts-Amherst
Presider Name
Stephen Harris
Paper Title 1
The Comparative Moment
Presenter 1 Name
Andrew Scheil
Paper Title 2
Spewing Wisdom: Consumption, Regurgitation, Poetry, Divinity in Several Traditions
Presenter 2 Name
Tiffany Beechy
Presenter 2 Affiliation
Univ. of Colorado-Boulder
Paper Title 3
Imitation and Style: The Promise of Comparison in the Case of Aldhelm, “Aldhelm,” and B
Presenter 3 Name
Benjamin A. Saltzman
Presenter 3 Affiliation
Univ. of California-Berkeley
Paper Title 4
All in the Name? A Comparative Approach to the Acrostic Poetry of Early Tenth-Century England
Presenter 4 Name
Robert Gallagher
Presenter 4 Affiliation
Univ. of Cambridge
Start Date
11-5-2013 1:30 PM
Session Location
Schneider 1120
Description
These three sessions, organized by Professor Andrew Scheil (Department of English, University of Minnesota) and Professor Stephen Harris (Department of English, University of Massachusetts) will take a fresh look at comparative approaches to the literature of Anglo-Saxon England. The comparative approach to Anglo-Saxon literature is both traditional and newly relevant in the twenty-first century: traditional, in that the scholarly community has long recognized that Anglo-Saxon literary culture itself is bilingual (Old English and Latin) and part of a broader shared literary culture of northern Europe, these facts established in the structure of institutions such as Cambridge University's Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic. Yet the comparative approach is also cutting edge in that current literary research increasingly relies on a trans-national, comparative paradigm in fields of study reaching from medieval Mediterranean cultures to transatlantic early modern studies and beyond. Concepts of literary history, intertextuality, and influence all increasingly recognize the hybrid and mobile nature of textual cultures.
These sessions seek to put the traditional in dialogue with the new and thus foster a new comparative studies in Anglo-Saxon literary scholarship. While Celtic, Germanic, and Latin texts have all long been associated with the source study of Anglo-Saxon literature, how might the comparative study of these literatures move beyond a source-study paradigm? Rich possibilities await the comparative study of (to name just a few possible subjects) Germanic gospel harmonies and Old English biblical poetry; of heroic culture in Old Irish and Old English narrative; of voice and metaphor in Latin lyric poetry and Old English elegies. Our intent is to push beyond received paradigms and examine Anglo-Saxon texts as part of a shared, trans-national North Sea/Irish Sea littoral culture.
These sessions thus pose simple, but profound, methodological questions. What are the unifying protocols of comparative analysis? What is the relationship between comparative literature, philology, and early medieval literary studies? What defines useful and responsible methods for comparative analysis in Anglo-Saxon/Norse/Celtic/Latin contexts? How might new comparative work proceed to shed mutual light on these contiguous and overlapping literary cultures?
Andrew Scheil
New Comparative Approaches to Anglo-Saxon Literature: Celtic, Germanic, Latin I
Schneider 1120
These three sessions, organized by Professor Andrew Scheil (Department of English, University of Minnesota) and Professor Stephen Harris (Department of English, University of Massachusetts) will take a fresh look at comparative approaches to the literature of Anglo-Saxon England. The comparative approach to Anglo-Saxon literature is both traditional and newly relevant in the twenty-first century: traditional, in that the scholarly community has long recognized that Anglo-Saxon literary culture itself is bilingual (Old English and Latin) and part of a broader shared literary culture of northern Europe, these facts established in the structure of institutions such as Cambridge University's Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic. Yet the comparative approach is also cutting edge in that current literary research increasingly relies on a trans-national, comparative paradigm in fields of study reaching from medieval Mediterranean cultures to transatlantic early modern studies and beyond. Concepts of literary history, intertextuality, and influence all increasingly recognize the hybrid and mobile nature of textual cultures.
These sessions seek to put the traditional in dialogue with the new and thus foster a new comparative studies in Anglo-Saxon literary scholarship. While Celtic, Germanic, and Latin texts have all long been associated with the source study of Anglo-Saxon literature, how might the comparative study of these literatures move beyond a source-study paradigm? Rich possibilities await the comparative study of (to name just a few possible subjects) Germanic gospel harmonies and Old English biblical poetry; of heroic culture in Old Irish and Old English narrative; of voice and metaphor in Latin lyric poetry and Old English elegies. Our intent is to push beyond received paradigms and examine Anglo-Saxon texts as part of a shared, trans-national North Sea/Irish Sea littoral culture.
These sessions thus pose simple, but profound, methodological questions. What are the unifying protocols of comparative analysis? What is the relationship between comparative literature, philology, and early medieval literary studies? What defines useful and responsible methods for comparative analysis in Anglo-Saxon/Norse/Celtic/Latin contexts? How might new comparative work proceed to shed mutual light on these contiguous and overlapping literary cultures?
Andrew Scheil