Beowulf: Annotated Bibliography
Chione Lawton
Professor Shrantz
2322 British Literature
8th Period
20 November, 2014 Annotated Bibliography
Beowulf
Acocella, Joan. "Slaying Monsters."
The New Yorker 2 June 2014: 70.
Literature Resource
Center
. Web. 18 Nov. 2014.
This critical essay, written by Joan Acocella, an American journalist and book critic for
New York, who has written many books regarding dance, literature, and psychology, though mentioning heavily the perfection that is Tolkien’s ‘Beowulf’ and the contemplation of as to why he never published his translation of ‘Beowulf’, also mentions the fact that Beowulf was unrelatable to the reader and is also lacking in psychology, She mentions at one point that there went into such descriptive detail about an almost impossibly large and wonderful ship that …show more content…
I would recommend this to a more man oriented audience who have an appreciation for what Beowulf might have been before Christianwashing translations of the poem was released. Woolf, Henry Bosley. "On the Characterization of Beowulf."
ELH
15.2 (1948): 8592. Web.
Henry Bosely Woolf, though unable to find much about him on the internet, this article or work of his was published by The Johns Hopkins University Press in June of 1948. Woolf, by first calling Beowulf a work of art, continues by saying the poet has “penetrating psychological gifts”, in use of structure and meaning. He says that scholars who study the artistic qualities of
Beowulf still have a ways to go, in that it is limitless. Woolf believes that Beowulf is expertly characterized, and that this fact is commonly discarded, or not even seen at all. “After the introductory lines that summarize early Danish history, the poet proceeds to an account of the building of the great hall Heorot[...]Though the point should not be pressed too far, the …show more content…
He believes this is the same, the diminished senses, for all monsters in this poem, referencing how the dragon near the end “searches but never explicitly sees anything during Beowulf 's description of the monster[...]not even during the dragon fight when it seems to direct its attacks at Beowulf 's and Wiglaf’s voices”. He concludes this with a statement that since only the humans can have this sense, and the monsters do not, it creates this separation, makes the humans associated with light, “intelligence, truth, and reasoning powers. The monsters, on the other handprimitive, instinctual, and barely capable of intellectual processes”. I agree, and think that looking that deeply into the text is a wonderful thing, me not having noticed that the words were used so delicately but literally. Making that boundary, even with the smallest use of words such as “sensed” or “realized” adds that much more development to characters, themes, and the overall meaning of the poema solid divide between good and evil that the reader can see. Waugh goes on to suggest that this black and white, light and dark division isn’t as simple
Professor Shrantz
2322 British Literature
8th Period
20 November, 2014 Annotated Bibliography
Beowulf
Acocella, Joan. "Slaying Monsters."
The New Yorker 2 June 2014: 70.
Literature Resource
Center
. Web. 18 Nov. 2014.
This critical essay, written by Joan Acocella, an American journalist and book critic for
New York, who has written many books regarding dance, literature, and psychology, though mentioning heavily the perfection that is Tolkien’s ‘Beowulf’ and the contemplation of as to why he never published his translation of ‘Beowulf’, also mentions the fact that Beowulf was unrelatable to the reader and is also lacking in psychology, She mentions at one point that there went into such descriptive detail about an almost impossibly large and wonderful ship that …show more content…
I would recommend this to a more man oriented audience who have an appreciation for what Beowulf might have been before Christianwashing translations of the poem was released. Woolf, Henry Bosley. "On the Characterization of Beowulf."
ELH
15.2 (1948): 8592. Web.
Henry Bosely Woolf, though unable to find much about him on the internet, this article or work of his was published by The Johns Hopkins University Press in June of 1948. Woolf, by first calling Beowulf a work of art, continues by saying the poet has “penetrating psychological gifts”, in use of structure and meaning. He says that scholars who study the artistic qualities of
Beowulf still have a ways to go, in that it is limitless. Woolf believes that Beowulf is expertly characterized, and that this fact is commonly discarded, or not even seen at all. “After the introductory lines that summarize early Danish history, the poet proceeds to an account of the building of the great hall Heorot[...]Though the point should not be pressed too far, the …show more content…
He believes this is the same, the diminished senses, for all monsters in this poem, referencing how the dragon near the end “searches but never explicitly sees anything during Beowulf 's description of the monster[...]not even during the dragon fight when it seems to direct its attacks at Beowulf 's and Wiglaf’s voices”. He concludes this with a statement that since only the humans can have this sense, and the monsters do not, it creates this separation, makes the humans associated with light, “intelligence, truth, and reasoning powers. The monsters, on the other handprimitive, instinctual, and barely capable of intellectual processes”. I agree, and think that looking that deeply into the text is a wonderful thing, me not having noticed that the words were used so delicately but literally. Making that boundary, even with the smallest use of words such as “sensed” or “realized” adds that much more development to characters, themes, and the overall meaning of the poema solid divide between good and evil that the reader can see. Waugh goes on to suggest that this black and white, light and dark division isn’t as simple