This study constructs a reading of Old English poetry which takes up issues in poststructuralist theory, including intertextuality, work versus text and the author. The modern reader knows this literature as a discrete number of poems, set up and printed in units punctuated as modern sentences and with titles inserted by modern editors. Carol Braun Pasternack offers an alternative approach which takes into account the format of the verse as it exists in the manuscripts, using the term 'inscribed' to define texts which are situated between oral inheritance and print. In a detailed examination of texts throughout the canon she explores the ways in which readers construct poems in the process of reading and in addition she extends her analysis to the question of authorship, arguing that the texts do not imply an author but rather imply tradition as the source of their authority.

A theoretical reading of the textuality of Old English poetry.
Reviews
"...a significant contribution to the theoretical discussion about the nature of Old English texts. Complexity and detail of argument make it most suitable for graduate students, researches, and faculty with good knowledge of Old English." Choice
"In addition to its impressively thorough analyses of Old English verbal and syntactic patterns, however, The Textuality of Old English Poetry not only suggests ways that scholars can productively use contemporary critical theory to enrich our understanding of Anglo-Saxon literature; it also points to ways that Anglo-Saxon literature can shape our ideas about such supposedly contemporary issues as authorship, textuality, and subjectivity." Envoi



Book Information
ISBN 9780521032704
Author Carol Braun Pasternack
Format Paperback
Page Count 240
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 367g
Dimensions(mm) 228mm * 150mm * 19mm