For Tuesday: Culler, Literary Theory, Chapter 4: "Language, Meaning, and Interpretation"

NOTE: We'll take a break from reading Beowulf for a day to delve into more matters of theory, interpretation, and meaning! This chapter may seem a bit dense, but read slowly and use the questions below as a guide if you get lost. I promise, there are some fascinating and very useful ideas hidden in here, especially for those future teachers among you! 

Answer TWO of the following: 

Q1: If ‘poetics’ is about the meaning of texts and how these meanings are achieved, then what is ‘hermenutics’? Why might this be equally important in reading or discussing a text? When might hermeneutics also get in the way?

Q2: What is the "Intentional Fallacy," and why is it a "fallacy"? Why do you think an author’s intention used to matter so much, whereas now, we tend to regard it with skepticism? Similarly, how does this free us up to discuss the works of living writers, and writers we know too much about, in particular?

Q3: On page 63, Culler writes that “a work is interpreted as answering questions posed by [the] horizon of expectations, and a reader of the 1990s approaches Hamlet with expectations different from those of a contemporary of Shakespeare’s.” So if Shakespeare was writing to his audience and their expectations, how does it make reading his works especially difficult? How can a modern reader be aware of a previous age’s—and even their own—horizon of expectations? (and how might we do this for Beowulf)? 

Q4: What does it mean that a word's form and meaning have an arbitrary relationship? How can a dog not be a dog? Or a moon not be a moon? Does this relate to the idea that “meaning is context-bound, but context is boundless” (67)?

For Thursday: Beowulf, pp. 95-136 (try to finish!)

NOTE: The Paper #1 assignment is in the post below this one...don't forget to scroll down! 

For Wednesday: Beowulf, pp.95-136 (try to finish!)

Answer TWO of the following:

Q1: What role does the dragon play in the poem? He’s clearly not humanized in the way Grendel or his mother are (he’s a literal monster), but he still exhibits some very human characteristics. What might these be, and why are they significant to the story?

Q2: If we read this poem as a Christian poem (as Beowulf himself seems to), why does God abandon kings like Hrothgar and Beowulf? Why is he allowed to fail in his final fight against the dragon, considering its significance to his kingdom? Or are we supposed to read this as a failure of Fate?

Q3: What is the significance of Wiglaf’s speech towards the end of the poem? How might he echo other characters in the poem, especially that of Hrothgar much earlier? Is it possible that he offers a sense of the poet’s own ‘theory’ on the poem?

Q4: Taken as a whole, does the poet seem to look back longingly on Anglo Saxon ideals, or as a Christian, does he see their limitations? How might this explain why he chose an old pagan warrior as the subject for a Christian poem? In other words, is this poem a celebration or a warning? A fond look back, or a testament to the ills of pagan civilization?

Paper #1: It's Just a Theory!

NOTE: The reading for Tuesday and the points to consider are in the post BELOW this one...

Paper #1: It’s Just a Theory!

“I regularly found myself muttering speeches written a thousand years ago as I watched their contemporary equivalents unfold on the news. This moment, and the moments before it…are things that concerned the Beowulf poet and concern this translator, too” (Headley, Introduction).

INTRO: In Chapter 1 of Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction, Culler defines theory as “interdisciplinary…analytical and speculative…a critique of common sense…[and] reflexive, thinking about thinking, enquiry into the categories we use in making sense of things” (14-15) A theory can be used to examine or critique a literary work, but a theory can also be a literary work itself. We can often use literature, and the ideas that pop out of the stories, characters, and language, to examine the world around us, and make us question the cultural norms that we take for granted. Seen in this light, Beowulf, especially when translated in a ‘modern’ way, can become a theory about many different things: literature, genre, gender, race, belief, morality, etc.

PROMPT: For this paper, I want you to use some aspect of Headley’s translation of Beowulf as a THEORY to examine some aspect OUTSIDE the text itself. By this I mean, use it to examine our ideas about, say, what it means to be a man or woman, or whether we think everything happens for a reason, or what makes a text literary, or what makes a hero or a villain, etc. These are just examples, and there are TONS of ideas you could explore theoretically from the perspective of Beowulf. Remember that the poem is your LENS: use it to examine something outside the text from the perspective of this book/its author/its translator.

REQUIREMENTS: In your paper, you should introduce your theory through a close reading of ONE specific passage in the poem. Introduce this quote, quote it in full, and then explain how you read it paying close attention to the language. Don’t just summarize it and don’t assume that everyone understand it on a first reading. Help us read/see what you see in it. THEN explain how you could use this general theory to examine another idea, behavior, classification, value, type, or custom in society. Be SPECIFIC and use an example from the outside world to explore with your theory. For example, if you want to examine modern theories of masculinity (what it means to be a man) through Beowulf, find some example in the modern world to point to—it could be a show, an advertisement, a custom, etc. Use the passage from Beowulf to show us a new way to read and understand this modern sense of gender (if you choose to look at gender—it’s just an example).

THE FINE PRINT

• Should be at least 3-4 pages double space, though you can do more.
• Be sure to quote from Beowulf and close read (analyze) the passage.
• Examine some outside ‘text’ through the lens of the passage/poem.
• The paper is due IN-CLASS on Thursday, September 19^th. We will spend the entire class discussing our different theories of the poem, so be there or be square!

For Tuesday: Beowulf, pages 51-95 (approx.)

For next week, try to ideally get through the battle in Grendel's Mother's lair, his victorious return to Heorot, and the aftermath of his Danish voyage. That's roughly the second part of the epic, with the third part racing ahead of time to when Beowulf is an old man/king, who has to face another monster (and one much more monstrous, this time).

Remember, we'll do an in-class response instead of normal questions in class on Tuesday. Some ideas you might consider as you read are...

* Why is Heorot punished with Grendel and his mother? How does Hrothgar undersatnd it, and possibly, how does Beowulf? Does the narrator agree with them?

* Look carefully at how Grendel and his mother are described around page 56. We'll look at other translations of this in class, too. What does the poet want us to see/understand about them?

* The other woman in the story thus far is Hrothgar's wife, Wealhtheow, who has an interesting scene on pages 52-54. What is her role in the story, and how might this strangely echo the role of Grendel's mother in the poem?

* On page 55, the poet writes that "they had no foretelling of Fate's fixed plans." Fate is capitalized in this translation, and this is another example of 'wyrd' in the text. If Fate has doomed several men in the hall to die at another monster's hands, what does this say about God's influence to the poet? Does the poet believe in both equally?

* Related to this, why does Hrothgar blame Beowulf when the mother returns for her vengeance? Aren't HE and his people the true cause of the murders?

* In this part of the poem, Beowulf's bravery seems to come from all his pagan armor and weapondry more than his faith in God or even his faith in himself. Indeed, when his sword breaks, he loses heart and almost runs for it. Why does he cut a different figure here than when he fought her son?

* What is Beowulf's true motivation in fighting all of these monsters? Is it loyalty to Hrothgar? Is it a mission from God? Or is it fame for himself? How does he talk about his mission to others?

* Anglo-Saxon poetry tends to be quite dark and realistic, with one of its great themes that of humility and memento mori (remember your own mortality). How does the poem stress this in an otherwise heroic, action-packed poem? 

For Thursday: Headley's Beowulf, Pages 1-51 (approx)

NOTE: If you have a different translation, you’ll miss out on Headley’s colorful language and very idiomatic translation, but you’ll gain in other departments. However, page 51 won’t mean much to you, so read from the beginning to after the poet tells the tale of Finn shortly after Beowulf defeats Grendel. Also, you won’t be able to answer the questions below about Headley’s translation, so choose the ones you can answer.

ALSO: For those interested, here's a New Yorker article about Headley's translation, which brings up many of the issues we raised in class, and defends many of her decisions: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/08/31/a-beowulf-for-our-moment

Answer TWO of the following:

Q1: Some of Headley’s word choices are not only surprisingly modern but outright shocking, such as this one on page 29: “Hashtag: blessed.” What did you think about her reading this way, and discuss ONE specific example that either really worked for you OR really didn’t. Be sure to explain why.

Q2: Beowulf as a poem often seems at war with itself. On the one hand, it speaks of God and Salvation, Heaven and Hell. But elsewhere, it speaks of Fate and even the very Anglo-Saxon concept of “wyrd” (page 34), which is more the Greek sense of Fate, as controlled by the gods (and not God). Why do you think this poem reference both the Christian and pagan belief systems? Does one seem more in control than the other?

Q3: Beowulf is also a beautifully poetic work of art, full of gorgeous turns of phrase, kennings, and ample alliteration. Discuss a passage in Headley’s translation that, in Culler’s words, “foregrounds language itself: makes it strange, thrusts it at you…so you can’t forget that you are dealing with language shaped in odd ways” (28). How does Headley (as well as the original poet) try to make language strange and exciting for us? And how does this affect the story itself?

Q4: Culler also writes in Chapter 2 that “A work exists between and among many texts, through its relations to them,” which he calls “intertextuality” (33). Though Beowulf is quite an ancient poem, and we don’t really know all that much about Anglo Saxon literature, how do we know that this is a profoundly intertextual poem? What ideas, characters, or stories does it seem to be responding to? How do we know that the world of Beowulf has a past that it drew from for inspiration and guidance?