While the essays offered in this collection vary in subject, discipline, and methodological approach, they center on the interpretation of the material world, whether that materiality appears in literature, stone, or the artifacts removed from an archaeological dig. The essay deal mainly with the Germanic and Celtic worlds, but incorporate motifs from Eastern Christian and Roman cultures. Contributors address the themes of time in history; societal and ideological change and continuity; iconic style and polysemous textuality; symbolic and representational interpretation; gender-specific economic production; definitions of social and political structures; and social processes of eclecticism and adaptation. Hence the approaches are interdisciplinary, contextual, comparative, and fluid in their integration of texts and images where the text represented is as crucial to the meaning as is the image or object; they therefore represent the study of the material culture of the Anglo-Saxon period at its best. The variety of disciplines represented in the essays and the range of topics covered by the individual scholars give some indication of the enormous scope of the scholarship of Rosemary Cramp, in whose honor this volume was produced. Readers will find that the subjects dealt with resonate with each other in interesting and complex ways. It is an invaluable contribution to scholars of Anglo-Saxon culture and archaeology.

About the Author
Catherine Karkov is a Professor of art history at the University of Leeds who specializes in Anglo-Saxon Art, material culture, and gender in late antiquity and the early medieval culture. Helen Damico is Professor Emerita of English and founder of the Institute for Medieval Studies at the University of New Mexico. She has published widely on Old and Middle English literature, particularly Beowulf.


Book Information
ISBN 9781580441100
Author Helen Damico
Format Hardback
Page Count 446
Imprint Medieval Institute Publications
Publisher Medieval Institute Publications
Weight(grams) 855g