• A sensual philology for Anglo-Saxon England

    Author(s):
    Martin Foys (see profile)
    Date:
    2014
    Subject(s):
    English literature--Old English, Sound--Study and teaching, Philology, Antiquities
    Item Type:
    Article
    Tag(s):
    Medieval studies, Medieval media studies, Old English literature, Anglo-Saxon literature, Sound studies, Material philology
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/M6HP12
    Abstract:
    What forgotten forms can philology assume anew? Reassessing how early medieval writers loved words differently than we do reveals significant gaps between past and presence senses of the physical phenomena words can index. In the early medieval language of Old English texts there remains a largely uncharted capacity for less linguistically driven aspects of expression, formed through a network of words, sounds, bodies and media: how the mute sound of a bell and the crook of a silent finger come together in medieval sign language, or how the Old English word for ring becomes a weeping, poetic gasp within a heaving breast. Such early medieval moments of communication survive because of language and in spite of language, and qualify the visualist framework through which we predictably reconstitute the medieval past, calling, /sotto voce/, for more than lovely words.
    Metadata:
    xml
    Published as:
    Journal article     Show details
    Pub. DOI:
    10.1057/pmed.2014.37
    Publisher:
    Springer Nature
    Pub. Date:
    2014-12-23
    Journal:
    postmedieval: a journal of medieval cultural studies
    Volume:
    5
    Issue:
    4
    Page Range:
    456 - 472
    ISSN:
    2040-5960,2040-5979
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    6 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved
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