Tennyson's Philological Medievalism
Seiten
2024
D.S. Brewer (Verlag)
978-1-84384-661-1 (ISBN)
D.S. Brewer (Verlag)
978-1-84384-661-1 (ISBN)
Considers Tennyson's poems, from the elegiac In Memoriam to the Arthurian Idylls of the King, in the context of Victorian interest in philology.
How do words come to mean what they mean, and how can we hope to use them precisely when they are constantly changing? The urge to find a word's meaning through its etymology is an old and enduring one, gaining new momentum in the nineteenth century as advocates of the so-called "new philology" argued that major revelations were to be found within the biographies of everyday expressions. Developing hand in hand with a growing national interest in all things "Anglo-Saxon", language study simultaneously seemed to offer a pathway to the roots of English culture and to illuminate human history on a grand scale.
Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892) came of age in the midst of this exploding popularity of both Anglo-Saxonism and philology, and he did so among men who were to be responsible for advancing both fields. This study places this preeminent Victorian poet in the context of the period's preoccupation with the history of language. It shows that the intellectual milieu that surrounded him encouraged him to revive archaic words and to reveal the literal metaphors lurking within his words. Moreover, his familiarity with past forms of English enabled him to arrange the connotations of his vocabulary for precise effect. Surveying his techniques at every scale, from individual vowels to narratives, this book argues that Tennyson held a more optimistic view of language than scholars have generally supposed, and shows the sophistication of his philological techniques.
How do words come to mean what they mean, and how can we hope to use them precisely when they are constantly changing? The urge to find a word's meaning through its etymology is an old and enduring one, gaining new momentum in the nineteenth century as advocates of the so-called "new philology" argued that major revelations were to be found within the biographies of everyday expressions. Developing hand in hand with a growing national interest in all things "Anglo-Saxon", language study simultaneously seemed to offer a pathway to the roots of English culture and to illuminate human history on a grand scale.
Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892) came of age in the midst of this exploding popularity of both Anglo-Saxonism and philology, and he did so among men who were to be responsible for advancing both fields. This study places this preeminent Victorian poet in the context of the period's preoccupation with the history of language. It shows that the intellectual milieu that surrounded him encouraged him to revive archaic words and to reveal the literal metaphors lurking within his words. Moreover, his familiarity with past forms of English enabled him to arrange the connotations of his vocabulary for precise effect. Surveying his techniques at every scale, from individual vowels to narratives, this book argues that Tennyson held a more optimistic view of language than scholars have generally supposed, and shows the sophistication of his philological techniques.
SARAH WEAVER earned her PhD in English from the University of Cambridge. She is a program manager at Stanford University.
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
Conventions Used in This Volume
Timeline of Relevant Events and Publications
Introduction: Tennyson's Philological Literary Language
1. "Between the chaos and the cosmos of human speech": Seeking the Source of Meaning
2. "The people whose tongue we speak": Anglo-Saxons as Linguistic Ancestors
3. Removing the Veil of Custom and Familiarity
4. "All that men have been doing and thinking and feeling": Evoking and Invoking the Past
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
| Erscheinungsdatum | 14.11.2024 |
|---|---|
| Reihe/Serie | Medievalism |
| Zusatzinfo | 5 b/w illus. |
| Verlagsort | Cambridge |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 156 x 234 mm |
| Gewicht | 666 g |
| Themenwelt | Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Anglistik / Amerikanistik |
| Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Literaturgeschichte | |
| Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Literaturwissenschaft | |
| ISBN-10 | 1-84384-661-6 / 1843846616 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1-84384-661-1 / 9781843846611 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
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