Prospectus

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Philology: A Storm in an Inkpot: Old English Riddle Poetry

Course
2009-2010

Description

“Ic eom wunderlicu wiht … Saga hwæt ic hatte” / “I am a strange creature … Say what I am called”; so the ninety-odd Old English riddle poems test their Anglo-Saxon and present-day students. Mixing learned and popular, oral and literate features with verbal acrobatics, these short literary texts challenge us to see the everyday – a swan, a storm, an inkpot – with different eyes. The absence of solutions only adds to their ambiguity (and for riddles, ambiguity is easily a mark of distinction). How do the riddle poems play with words? How do they involve their readers and hearers, in performance and on the page? What do we do on our search for valid interpretations? We will read the poems in Old English and consider them from various critical, cultural-historical and theoretical perspectives to reflect on these questions in class discussion, oral presentations and two essays. Recurrent themes include diction, metaphoric language, translation, Latin and vernacular analogues, the Exeter Book and our University Library’s “Leiden Riddle” manuscript, Anglo-Saxon cultural contexts, orality and literacy.

A 5 credits extension involves a literary translation and interpretation of several riddles, a reading list of current thinking on the riddle and orality, and an additional essay.

Teaching method

Two-hour seminar per week

Admission requirements

Advanced knowledge of the Old English language and culture.

Course objectives

An extension of existing skills in reading Old English poetry; an ability to analyse critically and reflect on Anglo-Saxon literary text in its cultural context; a good understanding of current critical work relevant to these texts; further experience in class discussion and oral and written presentation of one’s own thinking and research.

Required reading

To be announced.

Test method

Class participation and presentation (25%); mid-term essay (25%), final essay (50%).

Time table

The timetable will be available from June 1st on the Internet.

Information

English Department, P.N. van Eyckhof 4, room 102c. Phone: 071 527 2144, or by mail: English@hum.leidenuniv.nl

Registration

Students can register through U-twist before 15 July, After 15 July students can only register through the Departmental Office.

Blackboard

This course is supported by Blackboard