The Construction of Christian Poetry in Old English (Literary Structures) - Hardcover

Gardner, Mr. John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0809307057 ISBN 13: 9780809307050

Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press, 1975

Synopsis

Focusing on the works of Cynewulf, the Caedmonic school, and the great Beowulf-­poet, John Gardner traces the develop­ment of Anglo-Saxon Christian poetic style.

 

This latest contribution to a distinguished new series is a scholar-novelist-poet’s analysis of allegorical modes in a few ma­jor poems from England’s great age of allegory, the seventh century to, roughly, the eleventh.

 

What John Gardner is out to under­stand and describe is not so much the meaning” of particular poems though his study inevitably deals, to some extent, with meaning and offers critical interpre­tations but how the various kinds of Anglo-Saxon allegory work, what hap­pens when several completely different kinds of allegory are brought together in one poem (as in Beowulf), and what it is that makes the different kinds of allegory not just intellectually but emotionally effective.

 

Gardner asks the right questions from both the scholar’s and the novelist’s points of view, which turn out to be important for an understanding of the whole Anglo-Saxon poetic tradition.

About this title

About the Author:

John Gardner is the author of several novels, including Grendel (the Beowulf story from the monster’s point of view), an epic poem Jason and Medeia, and various translations, including The Com­plete Works of the Gawain-Poet. He teaches medieval literature at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.

Review:

This is an important and valuable book, although as the author himself points out in the Preface, its value lies in originality of approach rather than interpretation.”  Johanna Hunter, English Studies

About this edition

• Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press
• Publication date: 1975
• ISBN 10: 0809307057
• ISBN 13: 9780809307050
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 160