1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910456120903321

Autore

Bjork Robert E. <1949->

Titolo

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

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.