The Postmodern Beowulf: A Critical Casebook

by Eileen A. Joy (Editor), Mary K. Ramsey (Editor)

With essays by Eileen A. Joy, Mary K. Ramsey, Edward Said, Claire Sponsler, Nicholas Howe, Allen J. Frantzen, John D. Niles, John Moreland, Alfred K. Siewers, James W. Earl, Janet Thormann, John M. Hill, Jeffrey J. Cohen, Carol J. Clover, Clare A. Lees, Mary Dockray-Miller, Shari Horner, Michel Foucault, Carol Braun Pasternack, Gillian Overing, Seth Lerer, Susan Kim, and Michelle R. Warren

Genres: Theory

772 pages, Paperback

First published September 20, 2006

Reviews

[Ted · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful collection of critical essays on the old Anglo-Saxon (though these days I'm preferring Anglo-Scandinavian) poem Beowulf. The editors and contributors are speaking to why there's been such renewed interest -- both academic and popular -- in Beowulf at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century. In my opinion, it's principally a story about terrorism and its aftermath, which is why today's audiences are finding it so compellingly contemporary. After all, we have old Hrothgar, the leader of the world's most powerful army, who is totally impotent to stop the carnage brought on by a sinister and godless force -- a force that ruthlessly attacks at the heart of Danish culture in its very own meadhall, then disappears back into its dark and unknowable lair. Sound familiar? (By the way, I'm using the adjectives "sinister" and "godless" to represent Hrothgar's view of Grendel, the terrorist, not my own per se.)