Overview

Old English Ecotheology examines the impact of environmental crises on early medieval English theology and poetry. Like their modern counterparts, theologians at the turn of the first millennium understood the interconnectedness of the Earth community, and affirmed the independent subjectivity of other-than-humans. The author argues for the existence of a specific Old English ecotheology, and demonstrates the influence of that theology on contemporaneous poetry. Taking the Exeter Book as a microcosm of the poetic corpus, she explores the impact of early medieval apocalypticism and environmental anxiety on Old English wisdom poems, riddles, elegies, and saints' lives.

Full Product Details

Author:   Courtney Barajas
Publisher:   Amsterdam University Press
Imprint:   Amsterdam University Press
ISBN:  

9789463723824

ISBN 10:   946372382
Pages:   232
Publication Date:   16 August 2021
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Introduction: Early Medieval Earth Consciousness Ælfric, Wulfstan, and the Exeter Book Chapter Summaries Chapter I: Old English Ecotheology Medieval and Modern Ecotheology Conclusions Chapter II: The Web of Creation in Wisdom Poems Gnome(ish) Wisdom in Old English Poetry “The Web of Mysteries”: Poetic Entanglement in The Order of the World Mapping Kinship Connections in Maxims I Conclusions Chapter III: Identity, Affirmation, and Resistance in the Exeter Riddle Collection Ambiguous Interpretation in the Exeter Riddle Collection Birds’-Eye View: Riddle 6 and Riddle 7 Heroic Horns and Wounded Wood: Riddles of Transformation Conclusions Chapter IV: Trauma and Apocalypse in the Eco-Elegies Environmental Trauma and Natural Depression in The Wanderer Apocalypse / Now: The Ruin Conclusions Chapter V: Mutual Custodianship in the Landscapes of Gu.lac A Home, Alone: Gu.lac in the Wilderness Lessons in Early Medieval English Environmentalism Conclusions Coda: Old English Ecotheology Bibliography Index

Reviews

Barajas's prose embodies the generous mutual custodianship (179) that she has been arguing throughout this beautiful work, and the book closes with considerations of how we might move forward not only through our ownreimagined engagement with the poetic past but also how an application of this reimagining within our pedagogy may reorient our students and help manifest a better, Earth-centered future. - Carla Maria Thomas, Modern Philology, Vol. 120, No. 2

"""Barajas’s prose embodies the generous “mutual custodianship” (179) that she has been arguing throughout this beautiful work, and the book closes with considerations of how we might move forward not only through our ownreimagined engagement with the poetic past but also how an application of this reimagining within our pedagogy may reorient our students and help manifest a better, Earth-centered future."" - Carla María Thomas, Modern Philology, Vol. 120, No. 2"

Author Information

Courtney Catherine Barajas is Assistant Professor of English and Director of Medieval and Modern Studies at Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington.

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