From the essay: “The Deor we know from scholarship is a poem comprising episodes, isolated ‘examples’ illustrating the ‘moral … that when adversity comes we are to endure it, taking what small comfort we can from the thought that it will eventually pass’. This article, however, [argues] that a relative wealth of Germanic analogues allows us to see the legendary episodes not as various stories partly obscured by time, but as points in a well-known, sequential narrative history.”
“Tale and Parable: Theorizing Fictions in the Old English Boethius” in PMLA
My article, “Tale and Parable: Theorizing Fictions in the Old English Boethius” appears in the May 2021 issue of PMLA. You can read it here.
Review of Myra L. Uhlfelder, The Consolation of Philosophy as Cosmic Image
My review of Myra L. Uhlfelder, The Consolation of Philosophy as Cosmic Image, is now available from The Medieval Review.
“He eft astod: A Verbal Motif in Beowulf,” in Notes and Queries
My essay, “He eft astod: A Verbal Motif in Beowulf,” is now available from Notes and Queries. You can take a look here, or get in touch with me at jalorden [at] wm [dot] edu.
Old and Untrue: The Fictionality of the Old English Boethius
I’ll be delivering a paper titled, “Old and Untrue: The Fictionality of the Old English Boethius” at the UNC Med-Ren Colloquium this Thursday, October 10th at 5PM in the Donovan Lounge. Details here.
Discernment and Dissent in the Cynewulf Poems
My article, “Discernment and Dissent in the Cynewulf Poems” is out in Modern Philology vol. 116, no. 4 now!
“‘Rude Exclamations’: Beowulf, Identity, and the Making of Medieval English”
I’ll be speaking on “‘Rude Exclamations’: Beowulf, Identity, and the Making of Medieval English” at Bates College, at 4:15 PM on 21 March 2019.
CFP for Kalamazoo 2019: Early English Poetics
I’m organizing the following session for Kalamazoo ICMS 2019–get in touch if you’re interested in presenting or have any questions!
Call for Papers: Kalamazoo 2019
Early English Poetics
This session will bring together scholars working across boundaries of period, language, and subfield, to consider anew the configurations within which the earliest English poetry was made. Papers that brings together two or more subfields or disciplines that have been conventionally separated are especially welcome. Possible topics might include: influence across languages (e.g., Old Saxon and Old English, Old Norse and Middle English, Anglo-Norman and Latin); macaronic verse across the medieval period; understudied poetic conventions; theoretical approaches that cast new light on old assumptions; critical histories of the field. Given the long and complex history of studying the various topics brought together here under the umbrella of “early English poetics,” this session invites us to reflect upon new understandings of old literary traditions.
Please send abstracts of 250 words along with your name, affiliation, and postal and email addresses to jenniferlorden@gmail.com by September 15th 2018.
Jennifer A. Lorden 