tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post114857802111096971..comments2024-03-10T20:46:19.274-04:00Comments on In the Middle: Ocular humanizationCord J. Whitakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06224143153295429986noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-1148928524958423432006-05-29T14:48:00.000-04:002006-05-29T14:48:00.000-04:00But as we all know, Jeffrey Cohen is also anti-"pe...But as we all know, Jeffrey Cohen is also anti-"period" and also, simultaneously, "between everything."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-1148927343007920182006-05-29T14:29:00.000-04:002006-05-29T14:29:00.000-04:00You wouldn't necessarily know it from my publicati...You wouldn't necessarily know it from my publication record, but I actually trained as an Anglo-Saxonist before moving to later materials -- including many years of Old Norse. I settled the schizophrenic partitioning of my medieval gravitations by concentrating in my last book on the period in <EM>between </EM>the two periods.Jeffrey Cohenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17346504393740520542noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-1148744228019017882006-05-27T11:37:00.000-04:002006-05-27T11:37:00.000-04:00Forgive my grammar errors in previous post--too mu...Forgive my grammar errors in previous post--too much Italian espresso!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-1148744125666713112006-05-27T11:35:00.000-04:002006-05-27T11:35:00.000-04:00One of the reasons I wanted to include "The Ruins ...One of the reasons I wanted to include "The Ruins of Identity" in "The Postmodern Beowulf" (forthcoming from West Virginia University Press--likely this fall!) was because I needed a "Beowulf" essay [and granted, Jeffrey's essay also treats "The Wanderer," "The Ruin," and other subjects, not just "Beowulf"], was because it is [still] the only writing I know of on monstrosity in relation to the poem that explores the "intimacy" and abjection of "alterity" [viz. human subjectivity] and then also niftily connects that to the larger "identity" of that foreign country we call "Anglo-Saxon England," which, as John Niles has pointed out in his under-appreciated essay "Appropriations: A Concept of Culture" (in Allen Frantzen and John Niles, "Anglo-Saxonism and the Construction of Social Identity," UP Florida, 1997), is more an "idea" than an actual place. When I was first putting together the contents of the book, a senior Anglo-Saxonist asked, "what does Jeffrey Cohen know about "Beowulf"? Do you really think his essay is good enough to be in this book?" This person, who shall remain nameless, has never read Jeffrey's work, of course, and I just shook my head, and said, "yeah, it's good enough, trust me," and then I kind of panicked a little because no one, and I mean NO ONE, is more "proprietary" than the Old English folks about their subject matter. Jeez. The panic soon subsided. Cheers, EileenAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-1148737246017369412006-05-27T09:40:00.000-04:002006-05-27T09:40:00.000-04:00JJC,Thanks for reminding me of this stuff. I remem...JJC,<BR/>Thanks for reminding me of this stuff. I remembered your first bit about the Donestre, but forgot your larger point: a mistake, as it's clear that it was your work that must have been in the back of my mind when I was reading Haveloc.<BR/><BR/>Here's a great, related source, by the way, something I had once wanted to put in the diss.<BR/><BR/><I>The Branches of the Appletree, in The Tretyse of Love,</I> ed. J. H. Fischer, EETS OS 223. composed last quarter 13th century trans. 1493 <BR/><BR/>"Vpon this braunche [compunction] makith hir neest a byrde whiche is callid harpia, that hath the semblaunce of a mannes visage, & hir nature is to slee the fyrst man she fyndeth, & thenne gooth she to some water where she beholdeth hirself & seeth that she hath slayn hir owne liknes, & thenne makyth she a full grete sorowe alwaye that euer she sawe ony man. This signefyeth þe soule that slew cryst by hir synne, whose semblaunce is in hir, for to his semblaunce was she created" (113).Karl Steelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03353370018006849747noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-1148601913890877942006-05-25T20:05:00.000-04:002006-05-25T20:05:00.000-04:00Where was the Spouse and why was she not wearing h...Where was the Spouse and why was she not wearing her identical Irish T-shirt, you ask? I won't say, other than to hint that it involved the Other Coast and a strange creature called <A HREF="http://oracknows.blogspot.com/2004/12/weird-stuff-doctors-get-from.html" REL="nofollow">EneMan</A>.Jeffrey Cohenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17346504393740520542noreply@blogger.com