The Old English verse saints' lives : a study in direct discourse and the iconography of style / / Robert E. Bjork

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910456120903321
• Autore: Bjork Robert E. <1949->
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Toronto, [Ontario] ; ; Buffalo, [New York] ; ; London, [England] : , : University of Toronto Press, , 1985; ©1985
• ISBN: 1-282-00986-9; 9786612009860; 1-4426-7805-4
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (192 p.)
• Collana: McMaster Old English Studies and Texts
• Disciplina: 829.1
• Soggetti: Christian poetry, English (Old) - History and criticism; Christian saints - Legends - History and criticism; Christian hagiography - History - To 1500; Christian saints in literature; Discourse analysis, Literary; Electronic books.
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Includes indexes.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Introduction -- Chapter One. Old English Words as Deeds and the Struggle towards Light in Guthlac A -- Chapter Two. Saintly Discourse and the Distancing of Evil in Cynewulf's Juliana -- Chapter Three. Judas with a New Voice: Revelatory Dialogue in Cynewulf's Elene -- Chapter Four. The Artist of the Beautiful: Immutable Discourse in Guthlac B -- Chapter Five. Typology and the Structure of Repetition in Andreas -- Conclusion -- Abbreviations -- Notes -- Bibliography -- General Index -- Index of Lines -- Backmatter
• Sommario/riassunto: Critics have traditionally treated the Old English poems about saints as individual, autonomous works, relating but little to one another except in a broadly generic way. Bjork challenges the traditional view with an examination of the major structural feature that all the poems share: direct discourse.Syntactical and rhetorical analyses of the five poems ; reveal a consistent use of spech in creating stylistic norms or ideals - stylistic icons - in spiritually perfect figures. In all the poems the speech of the saints in formal, rhetorical, and balanced, the stylistic analogue both of their immutable fith and of the Christ-saint figural connection. The speech of all other characters is measured against this standard; their ability or inability to meet the saintly ideal in language reflects their level of spiritual awareness.The consistency with which these patterns appear sheds new light on the conventions of Old English poetic hagiography.