Description
Book SynopsisNew approaches to a range of Old English texts. Throughout her career, Professor Katherine O'Brien O'Keeffe has focused on the often-overlooked details of early medieval textual life, moving from the smallest punctum to a complete reframing of the humanities' biggest questions. In her hands, the traditional tools of medieval studies -- philology, paleography, and close reading - become a fulcrum to reveal the unspoken worldviews animating early medieval textual production. The essays collected here both honour and reflect her influence as a scholar and teacher. They cover Latin works, such as the writings of Prudentius and Bede, along with vernacular prose texts: the Pastoral Care, the OE Boethius, the law codes, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and Ælfric's Lives of Saints. The Old English poetic corpus is also considered, with a focus on less-studied works, including Genesis and Fortunes of Men. This diverse array of texts provides a foundation for the volume's analysis of agency, identity, and subjectivity in early medieval England; united in their methodology, the articles in this collection all question received wisdom and challenge critical consensus on key issues of humanistic inquiry, among them affect and embodied cognition, sovereignty and power, and community formation.
Trade ReviewThese are fine essays which celebrate a fine scholar. The conclusion to the volume summarises the work nicely: 'In the chapters of this volume can be seen the diversity and brilliance of Katherine's legacy; it is a truly fitting tribute to her as a scholar and a mentor.' So it is. -- Paul Cavill * TOEBI Newsletter *
Table of ContentsIntroduction Jacqueline Fay, Rebecca Stephenson, and Renée R. Trilling Part I: Affect and Embodied Cognition in Medieval Didactic Texts 1. Prudentius's Apotheosis and Hamartigenia in Early Medieval England Leslie Lockett 2. Wonders Never Cease in the Old English Boethius Nicole Guenther Discenza 3. The Desiring Mind: Embodying Affect in the Old English Pastoral Care Jennifer A. Lorden 4. Adam and Eve's Hands and Eyes: Covering the Face in the Junius Manuscript Benjamin A. Saltzman 5. Hawk Taming and Humanity in The Fortunes of Men Stacy S. Klein Part II: Sovereignty, Power, and English Textual Identities 6. A Taste for the Law: The Preface to Alfred's Law Code and Hannah Arendt's Reading of Kant Emily V. Thornbury 7. The Bodies Politic: Conflict, Consent, and English Identity During Godwin's Exile Jacob Hobson 8. Abraham Wheelock, Agent of Anglicanism, and the Deployment of Old English Texts in the 1643 Edition of Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People Timothy Graham Part III: Acts of Public Record in Making and Sustaining Communities 9. Writings Among the Ruins: The Peterborough Chronicle and the House Archive Scott T. Smith 10. St. Rumwold and the Social Network of Belief Miranda Wilcox 11. Holy Women on Display in Ælfric's Lives of Saints Jonathan Davis-Secord Overview of Career Visible Mód: The Scholarship of Katherine O'Brien O'Keeffe Maura Nolan The Writings of Katherine O'Brien O'Keeffe Bibliography Index Tabula Gratulatoria
