Old English Literature
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Recognizing the dramatic changes in Old English studies over the past generation, this up-to-date anthology gathers twenty-one outstanding contemporary critical writings on the prose and poetry of Anglo-Saxon England, from approximately the seventh through eleventh centuries.
Class and Gender in Early English Literature
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"[The essays] focus on class and gender not only sheds new light on old texts but also stretches the boundaries of the critical modus operandi which is often applied to such literature." -- Women's Studies Network (UK) Association Newsletter
Beowulf
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Set in the legendary Scandinavian past, Beowulf comes to the aid of the Danish king Hrothgar by killing the terrifying monster Grendel and its vengeful mother. A lifetime later, Beowulf courageously prepares for another great battle when a fiery dragon threatens his own kingdom. This acclaimed translation contains a critical introduction, a full index of names, and extensive notes.
Reference Works in British and American Literature
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Bracken identifies and describes a substantial portion of the currently available reference sources in British and American literature with more than 1,500 resources on individual writers. Descriptive annotations offer thorough and detailed assessments of the works.
Medieval Oral Literature
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Although problems of orality have been much discussed by medievalists, there is to date no comprehensive handbook on this topic. In 'Medieval Oral Literature' in the 'De Gruyter Lexikon' series, an international team of scholars has provided an in-depth discussion both of theoretical issues and various poetic traditions and genres. In addition to the core areas of the European Middle Ages, Russian, Hebrew, Arabic, Persian and Turkish traditions have also been included.
Celtic Myth and Arthurian Romance
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King Arthur was not an Englishman, but a Celtic warrior, according to Loomis, whose research into the background of the Arthurian legend reveals findings which are both illuminating and highly controversial. The author sees the vegetarian goddess as the prototype of many damsels in Arthurian romance, and Arthur's knights as the gods of sun and storm. If Loomis's arguments are accepted, where does this leave the historic Arthur?
Paradise, Death and Doomsday in Anglo-Saxon Literature
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How did the Anglo-Saxons conceptualize the interim between death and Doomsday? In this 2001 book, Ananya Jahanara Kabir presents an investigation into the Anglo-Saxon belief in the 'interim paradise': paradise as a temporary abode for good souls following death and pending the final decisions of Doomsday. She locates the origins of this distinctive sense of paradise within early Christian polemics, establishes its Anglo-Saxon development as a site of contestation and compromise, and argues for its post-Conquest transformation into the doctrine of purgatory. In ranging across Old English prose and poetry as well as Latin apocrypha, exegesis, liturgy, prayers and visions of the otherworld, and combining literary criticism with recent scholarship in early medieval history, early Christian theology and history of ideas, this book is essential reading for scholars of Anglo-Saxon England, historians of Christianity, and all those interested in the impact of the Anglo-Saxon period on the later Middle Ages.
Holy Men and Holy Women
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The Continuum Encyclopedia of British Literature
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This comprehensive guide to all British literature also includes literature in English from the colonial and postcolonial periods in Africa, Australia, Canada, the Caribbean, India, and New Zealand. Important authors from these areas are covered in substantive topical articles on their respective literatures. The contributors, from the UK and US, are all experts in their fields, and include: R. S. White on William Blake; W. H. New on Canadian Literature in English; Derek Brewer on Geoffrey Chaucer; Ian Ousby on Detective Fiction before 1945; David Kirby on Expatriates; Merryn Williams on Thomas Hardy; Sandie Byrne on Tony Harrison; Fred Marchant on Ted Hughes; Peter Barnes on Ben Jonson; Ian MacKillop on F. R. Leavis; Norman Kelvin on William Morris; Claire Tomalin on Samuel Pepys; and Peter Finch on Poetry since 1945.
A Companion to Old and Middle English Literature
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