Variation and the Poetics of Oral Performance in Cædmon's Hymn.
The profuse and apparently redundant lexical variation of Cædmon's Hymn has long been a critical problem, resulting in a wide range of interpretations and evaluations of the hymn. This essay applies insights from recent developments from Oral Theory, particularly the concept of multiformity, to argu...
| Publicado en: | Neophilologus Vol. 96; no. 3; pp. 441 - 457 |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
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Springer Nature
Jul2012
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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=76487937&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 76487937 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00282677 OK9 jtl: Neophilologus issn: 00282677 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Jul2012 vid: 96 iid: 3 pid: 237 pub: Springer Nature artinfo: ui: 76487937 10.1007/s11061-011-9270-4 ppf: 441 ppct: 16 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P size: 216KB tig: atl: Variation and the Poetics of Oral Performance in Cædmon's Hymn. aug: au: Ramey, Peter affil: Department of English, University of Missouri, 107 Tate Hall Columbia 65211-1500 USA su: English poetry English literature Poetics Old English literature Old English epic poetry sug: subj: English poetry English literature Poetics Old English literature Old English epic poetry keyword: Apposition Cædmon's Hymn Multiformity Oral theory Performance Variation ab: The profuse and apparently redundant lexical variation of Cædmon's Hymn has long been a critical problem, resulting in a wide range of interpretations and evaluations of the hymn. This essay applies insights from recent developments from Oral Theory, particularly the concept of multiformity, to argue that the hymn's variation reflects a poetics of oral performance in which poetic synonyms successively 'perform' rather than describe the hymn's subject matter. Three aspects of this poetics are identified and discussed: its iterative structure, traditional register, and temporality of continuous present. The role these aspects play in the hymn's ritual function are considered and illustrated with similarly-varied passages from Beowulf and the Old English Creed. Finally, the meaning structures of the rhetorical figure of variation are evaluated in relation to the eulogizing aspect of Old English verse as a whole, and contrasted to the use of metaphor in Old English poetry. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Neophilologus is a copyright of Springer, 2012. All Rights Reserved. item: Neophilologus holder: Springer Nature dt: @attributes: year: 2012 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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