The Wanderer and the Legacy of Pathetic Fallacy.
The Old English poem known as The Wanderer has long been said to rely on the device of 'pathetic fallacy' in its descriptions of stormy and frozen land- and seascapes. This piece of literary-critical terminology has strong ties to both Romantic and realist aesthetic ideals of the nineteenth century,...
| Publicado en: | Neophilologus Vol. 107; no. 1; pp. 103 - 126 |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
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Springer Nature
Mar2023
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=162057069&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 162057069 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00282677 OK9 jtl: Neophilologus issn: 00282677 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Mar2023 vid: 107 iid: 1 pid: 237 pub: Springer Nature artinfo: ui: 162057069 10.1007/s11061-022-09754-5 ppf: 103 ppct: 23 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 766KB tig: atl: The Wanderer and the Legacy of Pathetic Fallacy. aug: au: Soper, Harriet affil: University of Oxford, Oxford, UK su: Personification in literature Old English poetry Spirituality Exeter Book (Book) Medieval literature sug: subj: Personification in literature Old English poetry Spirituality Exeter Book (Book) Medieval literature keyword: Early medieval Exeter Book Nature Old English Pathetic fallacy The Wanderer ab: The Old English poem known as The Wanderer has long been said to rely on the device of 'pathetic fallacy' in its descriptions of stormy and frozen land- and seascapes. This piece of literary-critical terminology has strong ties to both Romantic and realist aesthetic ideals of the nineteenth century, and this paper outlines the assumptions which underpin the term and questions our continued use of it when discussing The Wanderer. By pointing us towards the external world as a projection of the interior psychological world of the 'wanderer' figure, the term obscures two key features of the text. Firstly, the label sweeps to the side the literal significance of the material world to which the poem's central speaker responds, despite the fact that this landscape bears marks of divine anger and potency and seems to participate in the Augustinian tradition of the degraded Sixth Age of the World. Secondly, the term points us towards a dramatic characterisation of a single heroic-age nobleman in a manner that the text is itself relatively uninterested in pursuing, instead emphasising conditions of exile, isolation, and despair as universalised spiritual problems. Seeing this poem as governed by pathetic fallacy distracts us from such facets, when other interpretive frameworks have more to offer. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Neophilologus is a copyright of Springer, 2023. All Rights Reserved. item: Neophilologus holder: Springer Nature dt: @attributes: year: 2023 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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