Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index


  • Record Number: 5725
  • Author(s)/Creator(s): Gameson , Fiona.
  • Contributor(s):
  • Title: A Voice Crying in the Wilderness: The Individual in "The Wife's Lament" and "Wulf and Eadwacer" [Second International Medieval Conference, University of Leeds, July 10-13, 1995. Session 104].
  • Source: Old English Newsletter 28, 3 (Spring 1995):
  • Description:
  • Article Type: Conference Paper Abstract
  • Subject (See Also): Literature- Verse Self in Literature Wife's Lament, Old English Elegy Wulf and Eadwacer, Old English Elegy
  • Award Note:
  • Geographic Area: British Isles
  • Century: 9-10
  • Primary Evidence:
  • Illustrations:
  • Table:
  • Abstract: These unique Old English utterances have often been read in a way contradicting or distorting their apparent meaning: some have argued that the speakers are male or non-human, or that the poems are Christian allegory, riddles, charms, or curses. A recent discussion of "The Wife's Lament" states that an individual voice would appear to be speaking, but since "The Individual" had not yet been "discovered" this must be illusory. My paper first reviews these critics and then, by textual analysis, examines what is actually being said and what can be reliably determined about the depicted situation of each speaker. Furthermore, the individuality portrayed in these poems provides a basis whence to probe the reality of the "discovery of the Individual" as a twelfth-century phenomenon [Reproduced by permission of Robert Schicler, the “Abstracts of Papers in Anglo-Saxon Studies” editor, and the editors of the “Old English Newsletter.”].
  • Related Resources:
  • Author's Affiliation: Trinity College, University of Oxford
  • Conference Info: - , -
  • Year of Publication: 1995.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN/ISBN: 00301973