Description
Book SynopsisIn Epistolary Acts, Jordan Zweck examines the presentation of letters in early medieval vernacular literature, including hagiography, prose romance, poetry, and sermons on letters from heaven, moving beyond traditional genre study to offer a radically new way of conceptualizing Anglo-Saxon epistolarity.
Trade Review"While Old English letters have been largely neglected in the past as being of marginal literary interest and relevance, Zweck demonstrates that epistolarity was deeply engaging to Anglo-Saxon authors and audiences, "even those who may not have produced or received letters themselves." It is to be hoped that this book will stimulate further interest in Anglo-Saxon letters, both Latin and Old English." -- Hugh Magennis, Queen's University Belfast * Speculum, vol 94 1, Jan 2019 *
"An exciting cross-fertilization of media and medieval studies, Epistolary Acts assembles Old English representations of epistolarity and communication in a wide-ranging book that will be of interest to scholars of early medieval literature and culture and to theorists of media and communication alike. Zweck is to be applauded for engaging both without losing either rigor or style." -- Erica Weaver, UCLA *
Journal of English and Germanic Philology *
"Zweck’s book makes a significant contribution by arguing for a more inclusive understanding of epistolarity in early medieval English texts." -- Emma Knowles, The University of Sydney *
Parergon *
Table of ContentsAbbreviations Introduction: Epistolary Acts and The Husband's Message Chapter One: Reconstructing the Anglo-Saxon ars dictaminis: Form, Vocabulary, and Immediacy Chapter Two: Spreading the Word: the Sunday Letter, Mass Communication, and the Self-Replicating Document Chapter Three: Messengers, Materiality, and Transmission in the Old English Apollonius of Tyre, Letter of Abgar, and Mary of Egypt Chapter Four: Bodies of Record: Witnessing, Memory, and Erasure in Aelfric's Life of Basil and the Anonymous Old English Legend of the Seven Sleepers Epilogue: Epistolary Afterlives Bibliography
