Writing Power in Anglo-Saxon England

Texts, Hierarchies, Economies
Erscheinungsjahr 2012
ISBN: 978-1-84384-319-1
Verlag: Boydell & Brewer

Buch, Englisch, Band 17, 206 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 160 mm x 239 mm, Gewicht: 522 g

Reihe: Anglo-Saxon Studies

New study of the complexities of how power operates in a number of Anglo-Saxon texts.

A work of fine and nuanced intelligence. Skilled and learned readings of a number of important texts. Fluent, polished, and beautifully written. Dr Katy Cubitt, University of York.

The formation and operation of systems of power and patronage in Anglo-Saxon England are currently the focus of concerted scholarly attention. This book explores how power is shaped and negotiated in later Anglo-Saxon texts, focusing in particular on how hierarchical, vertical structures are presented alongside patterns of reciprocity and economies of mutual obligation, especially within the context of patronage relationships (whether secular, spiritual, literal or symbolic). Through closeanalysis of a wide selection of sources in the vernacular and Latin (including the Guthlac poems of the Exeter Book, Old English verse epitaphs, the acrostic poetry of Abbo of Fleury, the Encomium Emmae Reginae and Libellus Æthelwoldi Episcopi), the study examines how texts sustain dual ways of seeing and understanding power, generating a range of imaginative possibilities along with tensions, ambiguities and instances of disguise or euphemism. It also advances new arguments about the ideology and rhetoric of power in the early medieval period.

Catherine A.M. Clarke is Professor in English, University of Southampton.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Clarke, Catherine A M

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Europäische Literatur
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie Mittelalterliche, neuzeitliche Archäologie (Europa)

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction
Order and Interlace: the Guthlac Poems of the Exeter Book
Sites of Economy: Power and Reckoning in the Poetic Epitaphs of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
'Absens ero. presens ero': Writing the Absent Patron
Power and Performance: Authors and Patrons in late Anglo-Saxon Texts
Remembering Anglo-Saxon Patronage: the Libellus Æthelwoldi Episcopi and its Contexts
Afterword
Bibliography

Über Autor(innen)

Catherine A. M. Clarke is Professor in English, University of Southampton.