Representation and Design: Tracing a Hermeneutics of Old English Poetry (S U N Y Series in Medieval Studies) - Softcover

Head, Pauline E

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0791432041 ISBN 13: 9780791432044

Publisher: State University of New York Press, 1997

Synopsis

Examines Old English poetry from the point of view of its interpretation, drawing on Anglo-Saxon pictorial art as a model for the interaction of representation and design.

Representation and Design examines Old English poetry from the point of view of its interpretation, beginning with the assumption that Anglo-Saxon concepts of reading were probably very different from those that dominate our own literary culture. The book insists on the semantic interaction of representation and design, two aspects of Old English poetry that traditionally have been examined separately, and draws on Anglo-Saxon pictorial art as a model throughout. It disputes the conventional dichotomy that interpretation makes between content and form; redefines content as a particular mode of representation-a reflection of texts and ideologies; and recognizes form as complex and meaningful design so that the "two" no longer can be distinguished in the process of interpretation.

The author examines a range of texts-Beowulf, The Wanderer, the Exeter Book riddles, manuscript illuminations, and the sculpture of the Ruthwell cross-in order to consider the place of the reader, the frame, and the past in Anglo-Saxon representation. Through this process, she traces a fluidity of signification and suggests that an Anglo-Saxon aesthetic would be both complex and enigmatic.

About this title

About the Author

Pauline E. Head is Associate Professor of English at York University.

From the Back Cover

Representation and Design examines Old English poetry from the point of view of its interpretation, beginning with the assumption that Anglo-Saxon concepts of reading were probably very different from those that dominate our own literary culture.

Edition details

• Publisher: State University of New York Press
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0791432041
• ISBN 13: 9780791432044
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 166