Nonhuman voices in Anglo-Saxon literature and material culture

"Anglo-Saxon ‘things’ could talk. Nonhuman voices leap out from the Exeter Book Riddles, telling us how they were made or how they behave. The Franks Casket is a box of bone that alludes to its former fate as a whale that swam aground onto the shingle, and the Ruthwell monument is a stone column tha...

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Hoofdauteur: Paz, James
Formaat: Online
Taal:Engels
Gepubliceerd in: Manchester University Press 2021
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Online toegang:631090
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author Paz, James
author_browse Paz, James
author_facet Paz, James
author_sort Paz, James
collection Directory of Open Access Books
description "Anglo-Saxon ‘things’ could talk. Nonhuman voices leap out from the Exeter Book Riddles, telling us how they were made or how they behave. The Franks Casket is a box of bone that alludes to its former fate as a whale that swam aground onto the shingle, and the Ruthwell monument is a stone column that speaks as if it were living wood, or a wounded body. In this book, James Paz uncovers the voice and agency that these nonhuman things have across Anglo-Saxon literature and material culture. He 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.  Nonhuman voices in Anglo-Saxon literature and material culture invites us to rethink the concept of voice as a quality that is not simply imposed upon nonhumans but which inheres in their ways of existing and being in the world. It asks us to rethink the concept of agency as arising from within groupings of diverse elements, rather than always emerging from human actors alone."
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spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-397202025-02-13T12:57:25Z Nonhuman voices in Anglo-Saxon literature and material culture Paz, James beowulf material culture franks casket anglo-saxon middle ages exeter book aldhelm st cuthbert thing theory dream of the rood Grendel's mother Kingdom of Northumbria Old English Runes thema EDItEUR::2 Language qualifiers::2A Indo-European languages::2AC Germanic and Scandinavian languages::2ACB English::2ACBA Anglo-Saxon / Old English thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSA Literary theory thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSB Literary studies: general::DSBB Literary studies: ancient, classical and medieval "Anglo-Saxon ‘things’ could talk. Nonhuman voices leap out from the Exeter Book Riddles, telling us how they were made or how they behave. The Franks Casket is a box of bone that alludes to its former fate as a whale that swam aground onto the shingle, and the Ruthwell monument is a stone column that speaks as if it were living wood, or a wounded body. In this book, James Paz uncovers the voice and agency that these nonhuman things have across Anglo-Saxon literature and material culture. He 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.  Nonhuman voices in Anglo-Saxon literature and material culture invites us to rethink the concept of voice as a quality that is not simply imposed upon nonhumans but which inheres in their ways of existing and being in the world. It asks us to rethink the concept of agency as arising from within groupings of diverse elements, rather than always emerging from human actors alone." 2021-02-10T12:58:18Z 2017-05-01 23:55:55 2019-12-03 08:32:13 2020-04-01T13:31:30Z 2017 book 631090 OCN: 992562058 http://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/31338 9781526115997 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/39720 eng Manchester Medieval Literature and Culture open access image/jpeg image/jpeg image/jpeg image/jpeg image/jpeg n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/31338/1/631090.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/31338/1/631090.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/31338/1/631090.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/31338/1/631090.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/31338/1/631090.pdf Manchester University Press 10.26530/OAPEN_631090 10.26530/OAPEN_631090 bcb4ab08-c525-4e6c-88e5-a0cf0a175533 University of Manchester 9781526115997 248 open access
spellingShingle beowulf
material culture
franks casket
anglo-saxon
middle ages
exeter book
aldhelm
st cuthbert
thing theory
dream of the rood
Grendel's mother
Kingdom of Northumbria
Old English
Runes
thema EDItEUR::2 Language qualifiers::2A Indo-European languages::2AC Germanic and Scandinavian languages::2ACB English::2ACBA Anglo-Saxon / Old English
thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSA Literary theory
thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSB Literary studies: general::DSBB Literary studies: ancient, classical and medieval
Paz, James
Nonhuman voices in Anglo-Saxon literature and material culture
title Nonhuman voices in Anglo-Saxon literature and material culture
title_full Nonhuman voices in Anglo-Saxon literature and material culture
title_fullStr Nonhuman voices in Anglo-Saxon literature and material culture
title_full_unstemmed Nonhuman voices in Anglo-Saxon literature and material culture
title_short Nonhuman voices in Anglo-Saxon literature and material culture
title_sort nonhuman voices in anglo saxon literature and material culture
topic beowulf
material culture
franks casket
anglo-saxon
middle ages
exeter book
aldhelm
st cuthbert
thing theory
dream of the rood
Grendel's mother
Kingdom of Northumbria
Old English
Runes
thema EDItEUR::2 Language qualifiers::2A Indo-European languages::2AC Germanic and Scandinavian languages::2ACB English::2ACBA Anglo-Saxon / Old English
thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSA Literary theory
thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSB Literary studies: general::DSBB Literary studies: ancient, classical and medieval
topic_facet beowulf
material culture
franks casket
anglo-saxon
middle ages
exeter book
aldhelm
st cuthbert
thing theory
dream of the rood
Grendel's mother
Kingdom of Northumbria
Old English
Runes
thema EDItEUR::2 Language qualifiers::2A Indo-European languages::2AC Germanic and Scandinavian languages::2ACB English::2ACBA Anglo-Saxon / Old English
thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSA Literary theory
thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSB Literary studies: general::DSBB Literary studies: ancient, classical and medieval
url 631090
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