Full-text resources of CEJSH and other databases are now available in the new Library of Science.
Visit https://bibliotekanauki.pl

Results found: 6

first rewind previous Page / 1 next fast forward last

Search results

Search:
in the keywords:  Beowulf
help Sort By:

help Limit search:
first rewind previous Page / 1 next fast forward last
1
Publication available in full text mode
Content available

Lacanian Implications of Departures in Zemeckis’s Beowulf from Beowulf, the Old English Epic

100%
Birlik N.
Text Matters: A Journal of Literature, Theory and Culture
|
2021
|
issue 11
178-185
EN
Although Robert Zemeckis’s film Beowulf (2007) is a re-writing of the Old English epic Beowulf with a shifting of perspective, certain details in the film can only be understood by referring to the poem. That is, a better understanding of the film is tied closely to an awareness of certain narrative elements in the epic. The emphasis on Beowulf in the poem shifts to the Mother in the film. This shift obviously leads to a recontextualization of the narrative elements of the former text. In the epic, Grendel is left without a father; however, in the film, he is fathered by Hrothgar but this biological fathering does not lead to linguistic castration. In their case, things are reversed: rather than the infant being castrated by the Law/language, the biological father is led to a psychic regression due to the son. This appears to be a dramatization of the conflicts between the (m)Other and the shared Other/the representative of the paternal metaphor: that is, Hrothgar. This time, the (m)Other conquers the representative of the paternal metaphor and annuls his masculinity, which radically changes the way in which we evaluate the course of events in the film. These departures make more sense if they are analyzed against the background of Lacanian epistemology. This paper aims to explore the film’s departures from the poem by approaching it from a Lacanian perspective.
2

Literature: Wealhtheow’s Peace-Weaving: Diegesis and Genealogy of Gender in Beowulf

88%
Olesiejko J.
Studia Anglica Posnaniensia
|
2014
|
vol. 49
|
issue 1
103-123
EN
This article uses Charles S. Peirce’s concept of icon and Judith Butler’s idea of genealogy of gender to study levels of fictionality in the Old English poem Beowulf. It shows that Wealhtheow, the principal female character in the epic, operates as a diegetic reader in the poem. Her speeches, in which she addresses her husband King Hrothgar and Beowulf contain implicit references to the Lay of Finn, which has been sung by Hrothgar’s minstrel at the feast celebrating Beowulf’s victory. It is argued here that Wealhtheow represents herself as an icon of peace-weaving, as she casts herself as a figuration of Hildeburh, the female protagonist of the Lay of Finn. Hildeburh is the sister of Hnæf, the leader of the Danes, and is given by her brother to Finn the Frisian in a marriage alliance. In her role as a peace-weaver, the queen is to weave peace between tribes by giving birth to heirs of the crown. After the courtly minster’s performance of the Lay, Wealhtheow warns her husband against establishing political alliances with the foreigner Beowulf at the expense of his intratribal obligation to his cousin Hrothulf, who is to become king after Hrothgar’s death.
3
Publication available in full text mode
Content available

The Functions of Digressions in Beowulf

88%
Urbanowicz M.
Acta Neophilologica
|
2013
|
issue XV/2
213-223
EN
The article aims at establishing the reasons why digressions constitute an integral part of Beowulf. It shows the wide variety of ways how these stylistic devices are related to the main plot of the poem and the latest approach towards the task of analysis. Moreover, the author rejects the misguided notion of digressions being nothing more than just “tasteless intrusions”. Even though the purpose of some digressions may not seem perfectly straightforward, all of them contribute to the artistry of the poem. Therefore, Beowulf has to be analysed in terms of a work of art and should not be regarded as valuable for merely historical significance.
4
Publication available in full text mode
Content available

The Economy of Property and Prosperity in Daniel of the Old English Junius Manuscript: A View on the Poem’s Syncretism

88%
Jacek O.
Anglica. An International Journal of English Studies
|
2020
|
issue 29/1
5-27
EN
The heroic economy of treasure subtends both the treasure plundered from the temple in Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar and the political structure of Babylon in the Old English Daniel. The golden idol that Nebuchadnezzar erects is a sign of the worldly glory and wealth that generates the flow of goods in the heroic economy of exchange of honour. The aim of the paper is to argue that the Daniel poet makes a contrast between the secular flow of treasure, at the foundation of Nebuchadnezzar’s power, and the divine economy of grace, at the centre of the covenant between the Hebrews and God.
5
Publication available in full text mode
Content available

“They Began to Sing Him a Sorhleoð”: Possible Echoes of the Anglo-Saxon Funerary Rites in ‘The Dream of the Rood’

75%
Neubauer Ł.
Acta Poloniae Historica
|
2019
|
vol. 120
PL
The Dream of the Rood constitutes one of the most intriguing products of Old English literature, both in terms of its highly imaginative, heroicised depiction of Christ and the Cross and on account of its numerous Christian and pre-Christian intersec- tions. One of the most arresting issues in it, however, particularly as regards the poem’s cultural background, is its mention of a sorhleoð (l. 67), the ‘sorrow-song’, or ‘dirge’ that the disciples begin to sing once they have placed the body of the Saviour in the sepulchre. Given that there is no mention of any songs being chanted at the time of Christ’s burial in the canonical Gospels, it seems rational to suggest that the anonymous poet must have supplied this ‘missing’ information on the basis of his own, perhaps somewhat antiquarian, knowledge of the burial customs in Anglo-Saxon England.
6

Saving the “Undoomed Man” InBeowulf(572b-573)

63%
Anderson S. S.
Studia Anglica Posnaniensia
|
2014
|
vol. 49
|
issue 2
5-31
EN
The maxim Wyrd oft nereð // unfӕgne eorl, / þonne his ellen deah “Fate often spares an undoomed man when his courage avails” (Beowulf 572b-573) has been likened to “Fortune favors the brave,” with little attention to the word unfӕgne, which is often translated “undoomed”. This comparison between proverbs emphasizes personal agency and suggests a contrast between the proverb in 572b-573 and the maxim Gӕð a wyrd swa hio scel “Goes always fate as it must” (Beowulf 455b), which depicts an inexorable wyrd. This paper presents the history of this view and argues that linguistic analysis and further attention to Germanic cognates of (un)fӕge reveal a proverb that harmonizes with 455b. (Un)fӕge and its cognates have meanings related to being brave or cowardly, blessed or accursed, and doomed or undoomed. A similar Old Norse proverb also speaks to the significance of the status of unfӕge men. Furthermore, the prenominal position of unfӕgne is argued to represent a characterizing property of the man. The word unfӕgne is essential to the meaning of this proverb as it indicates not the simple absence of being doomed but the presence of a more complex quality. This interpretive point is significant in that it provides more information about the portrayal of wyrd in Beowulf by clarifying a well-known proverb in the text; it also has implications for future translations of these verses.
first rewind previous Page / 1 next fast forward last
JavaScript is turned off in your web browser. Turn it on to take full advantage of this site, then refresh the page.