E-Book Overview
Nonhuman voices in Anglo-Saxon literature and material culture uncovers the voice and agency possessed by nonhuman things across Anglo-Saxon literature and material culture. It makes a new contribution to 'thing theory' and rethinks conventional divisions between animate human subjects and inanimate nonhuman objects in the early Middle Ages.
Anglo-Saxon writers and craftsmen describe artefacts and animals through riddling forms or enigmatic language, balancing an attempt to speak and listen to things with an understanding that these nonhumans often elude, defy and withdraw from us. But the active role that things have in the early medieval world is also linked to the Germanic origins of the word, where a þing is a kind of assembly, with the ability to draw together other elements, creating assemblages in which human and nonhuman forces combine.
E-Book Content
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NONH UMAN VOICES IN A N GLO- S AX O N L I TER ATURE A N D M ATERIA L CU LT U R E
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Series editors: Anke Bernau and David Matthews Series founded by: J. J. Anderson and Gail Ashton Advisory board: Ruth Evans, Nicola McDonald, Andrew James Johnston, Sarah Salih, Larry Scanlon and Stephanie Trigg The Manchester Medieval Literature and Culture series publishes new research, informed by current critical methodologies, on the literary cultures of medieval Britain (including Anglo-Norman, Anglo-Latin and Celtic writings), including post-medieval engagements with and representations of the Middle Ages (medievalism). ‘Literature’ is viewed in a broad and inclusive sense, embracing imaginative, historical, political, scientific, dramatic and religious writings. The series offers monographs and essay collections, as well as editions and translations of texts. Titles Available in the Series The Parlement of Foulys (by Geoffrey Chaucer) D. S. Brewer (ed.) Language and imagination in the Gawain-poems J. J. Anderson Water and fire:The myth of the Flood in Anglo-Saxon England Daniel Anlezark Greenery: Ecocritical readings of late medieval English literature Gillian Rudd Sanctity and pornography in medieval culture:On the verge Bill Burgwinkle and Cary Howie In strange countries: Middle English literature and its afterlife: Essays in Memory of J. J. Anderson David Matthews (ed.) A knight’s legacy: Mandeville and Mandevillian lore in early modern England Ladan Niayesh (ed.) Rethinking the South English legendaries Heather Blurton and Jocelyn Wogan-Browne (eds) Between earth and heaven: Liminality and the Ascension of Christ in Anglo-Saxon literature Johanna Kramer Transporting Chaucer Helen Barr Sanctity as literature in late medieval Britain Eva von Contzen and Anke Bernau (eds) Reading Robin Hood: Content, form and reception in the outlaw myth Stephen Knight Annotated Chaucer bibliography: 1997–2010 Mark Allen and Stephanie Amsel Roadworks: Medieval Britain, medieval roads Valerie Allen and Ruth Evans (eds) Love, history and emotion in Chaucer and Shakespeare: Troilus and Criseyde and Troilus and Cressida Andrew James Johnston, Russell West-Pavlov and Elisabeth Kempf (eds) Gesta Romanorum: A new translation Christopher Stace The Scottish Legendary: Towards a poetics of hagiographic narration Eva von Contzen
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Nonhuman voices in Anglo-Saxon literature and material culture JAMES PAZ
Manchester University Press
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Copyright © James Paz 2017 The right of James Paz to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Published by Manchester University Press Altrincham Street, Manchester M1 7JA www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 1 5261 0110 5 hardback ISBN 978 1 5261 1599 7 Open Access First publis