Buch, Englisch, Band 46, 222 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 243 mm x 163 mm, Gewicht: 470 g
Reihe: Anglo-Saxon Studies
Buch, Englisch, Band 46, 222 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 243 mm x 163 mm, Gewicht: 470 g
Reihe: Anglo-Saxon Studies
ISBN: 978-1-78327-759-9
Verlag: Boydell & Brewer Ltd
The Old English prose translations traditionally attributed to Alfred the Great (versions of Gregory's Regula pastoralis, Boethius' De consolatione philosophiae, Augustine's Soliloquia and the first fifty Psalms) urge detachment from the material world; but despite this, its flotsam and jetsam, from costly treasures to everyday objects, abound within them.
This book reads these original and inventive translations from a materialist perspective, drawing on approaches as diverse as thing theory and Augustine's principles of use and enjoyment. By focussing on the material, it offers a fresh interpretation of this group of translations, bringing out their complex, often contradictory, relationship with the material world. It demonstrates that, as in the poetic tradition, wealth in Alfredian literature is not simply a tool to be used, or something to be enjoyed in excess; rather, in moving away from these two static binaries, it shows that wealth is a current, flowing both horizontally, as an exchange of gifts between humans, and vertically, as a salvific current between earth and heaven. The prose translations are situated in the context of Old English poetry, including Beowulf, The Wanderer, The Seafarer, the Exeter Book Riddles and The Dream of the Rood.
Autoren/Hrsg.
Weitere Infos & Material
Introduction: Use and enjoyment in Old English literature
1. Books and ladders: The speaking prefaces
2. The stream of wealth: The Old English Pastoral Care
3. True riches: The Old English Boethius
4. The familiar and the strange: The Old English Soliloquies
5. Treasure in heaven: The Prose Psalms
Conclusion: Transformations in prose and poetry
Bibliography
Index