OLD ENGLISH POETICS: THE AESTHETICS OF THE FAMILIAR IN ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND

"The form and style of Old English poetry, which remained highly stable from the fifth to the eleventh centuries, confront the modern reader with several very basic critical challenges. Its deep conventionality is at odds with modern aesthetic values and notions of authorship. Moreover, the style of Old English poetry resists historicization - a particular problem in a critical environment increasingly engaged with the ideological significance of texts situated in specific historical contexts. This study addresses these challenges in order to offer an historicized approach to Old English poetics, paying particular attention to its use of formulas and verbal repetition via a close analysis of the rich language of treasure to be found in Old English verse. Rather than representing poets as conduits of tradition, Old English Poetics conceptualizes poets as a activity controlling and maintaining poetic convention."--BOOK JACKET.