The Owl and the Nightingale : : The Poems and Its Critics / / Kathryn Hume.
The Owl and the Nightingale is clearly one of the few major Middle English poems. Despite the clarity and simplicity of its text, however, the poem has occasioned bitter and still unresolved interpretative controversy. Is the key to its meaning to be found in bird lore? the debate form? Is the poem...
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Place / Publishing House: | Toronto : : University of Toronto Press, , [2019] ©1975 |
Year of Publication: | 2019 |
Language: | English |
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Hume, Kathryn, author. aut http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/aut The Owl and the Nightingale : The Poems and Its Critics / Kathryn Hume. Toronto : University of Toronto Press, [2019] ©1975 1 online resource (152 p.) text txt rdacontent computer c rdamedia online resource cr rdacarrier text file PDF rda Heritage Frontmatter -- Contents -- texts and Bíblíographíes -- preface -- acknowledgments -- 1. some problems of text, date, authorshíp, and ínterpretatíon -- 2. the avian nature op the protagonists -- 3. the significance op the debate form -- 4. intellectual and religious interpretations -- 5. historical and political interpretations -- 6. structural and sequential impact -- 7. the potentialities of burlesque-satire interpretations -- 8. conclusions -- index of lines cited and alluded to directly -- index restricted access http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec online access with authorization star The Owl and the Nightingale is clearly one of the few major Middle English poems. Despite the clarity and simplicity of its text, however, the poem has occasioned bitter and still unresolved interpretative controversy. Is the key to its meaning to be found in bird lore? the debate form? Is the poem a political or religious allegory? Despite the radical contradictions in the conclusions of previous critics, most of them have implicitly claimed a unique and exclusive validity. Kathryn Hume's purpose in writing this book is to offer a new account of the poem, one based on a systematic attempt to assess the validity and usefulness of various possible approaches to the work. She shows saneness, balance, and humour both in her criticism of previous interpretations and in her own conclusions. We need, she insists, to understand the nature of the poem before we erect elaborate theories about its meaning. The contradictoriness of the relevant avian traditions, the birds' complete incompetence as debaters, the poem's curiously indeterminate ending, and the critics' inability to agree even on the subject of the controversy, she argues, makes it difficult to see the work as a serious debate about anything. Attempts to find an extrinsic or allegorical meaning have proven radically contradictory and have all neglected large portions of the poem. But since no serious issue is present in the bird's dialogue, the meaning of the poem must indeed be sought elsewhere. Analysis of The Owl and the Nightingale's sequential impact and its manipulation of audience response emphasize the debate's lack of direction, its bitterness, and also – from the reader's point of view – its humour. Kathryn Hume argues that a great deal is clarified and made comprehensible if we regard the poem as a burlesque-satire on human contentiousness. The birds' illogic, the wandering arguments, the unsystematic introduction of various human concerns, and the inconclusive ending are all consistent with the idea that the poem was written as a witty caricature of petty but vicious human quarrelling. Both for its sane reinterpretation of what is widely considered one of the masterpieces of Middle English literature and for the interpretative methodology it employs, The Owl and the Nightingle: The Poem and Its Critics should be of lasting value to medievalists. Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web. In English. Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 30. Aug 2021) Birds in literature. Civilization, Medieval, in literature. Debate poetry, English (Middle) History and criticism. LITERARY CRITICISM / Medieval. bisacsh Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Toronto Press eBook-Package Archive 1933-1999 9783110490947 https://doi.org/10.3138/9781487599737 https://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9781487599737 Cover https://www.degruyter.com/cover/covers/9781487599737.jpg |
language |
English |
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eBook |
author |
Hume, Kathryn, Hume, Kathryn, |
spellingShingle |
Hume, Kathryn, Hume, Kathryn, The Owl and the Nightingale : The Poems and Its Critics / Heritage Frontmatter -- Contents -- texts and Bíblíographíes -- preface -- acknowledgments -- 1. some problems of text, date, authorshíp, and ínterpretatíon -- 2. the avian nature op the protagonists -- 3. the significance op the debate form -- 4. intellectual and religious interpretations -- 5. historical and political interpretations -- 6. structural and sequential impact -- 7. the potentialities of burlesque-satire interpretations -- 8. conclusions -- index of lines cited and alluded to directly -- index |
author_facet |
Hume, Kathryn, Hume, Kathryn, |
author_variant |
k h kh k h kh |
author_role |
VerfasserIn VerfasserIn |
author_sort |
Hume, Kathryn, |
title |
The Owl and the Nightingale : The Poems and Its Critics / |
title_sub |
The Poems and Its Critics / |
title_full |
The Owl and the Nightingale : The Poems and Its Critics / Kathryn Hume. |
title_fullStr |
The Owl and the Nightingale : The Poems and Its Critics / Kathryn Hume. |
title_full_unstemmed |
The Owl and the Nightingale : The Poems and Its Critics / Kathryn Hume. |
title_auth |
The Owl and the Nightingale : The Poems and Its Critics / |
title_alt |
Frontmatter -- Contents -- texts and Bíblíographíes -- preface -- acknowledgments -- 1. some problems of text, date, authorshíp, and ínterpretatíon -- 2. the avian nature op the protagonists -- 3. the significance op the debate form -- 4. intellectual and religious interpretations -- 5. historical and political interpretations -- 6. structural and sequential impact -- 7. the potentialities of burlesque-satire interpretations -- 8. conclusions -- index of lines cited and alluded to directly -- index |
title_new |
The Owl and the Nightingale : |
title_sort |
the owl and the nightingale : the poems and its critics / |
series |
Heritage |
series2 |
Heritage |
publisher |
University of Toronto Press, |
publishDate |
2019 |
physical |
1 online resource (152 p.) |
contents |
Frontmatter -- Contents -- texts and Bíblíographíes -- preface -- acknowledgments -- 1. some problems of text, date, authorshíp, and ínterpretatíon -- 2. the avian nature op the protagonists -- 3. the significance op the debate form -- 4. intellectual and religious interpretations -- 5. historical and political interpretations -- 6. structural and sequential impact -- 7. the potentialities of burlesque-satire interpretations -- 8. conclusions -- index of lines cited and alluded to directly -- index |
isbn |
9781487599737 9783110490947 |
callnumber-first |
P - Language and Literature |
callnumber-subject |
PR - English Literature |
callnumber-label |
PR2109 |
callnumber-sort |
PR 42109 O73 H864 41975 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3138/9781487599737 https://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9781487599737 https://www.degruyter.com/cover/covers/9781487599737.jpg |
illustrated |
Not Illustrated |
dewey-hundreds |
800 - Literature |
dewey-tens |
820 - English & Old English literatures |
dewey-ones |
821 - English poetry |
dewey-full |
821/.1 |
dewey-sort |
3821 11 |
dewey-raw |
821/.1 |
dewey-search |
821/.1 |
doi_str_mv |
10.3138/9781487599737 |
oclc_num |
1091687964 |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT humekathryn theowlandthenightingalethepoemsanditscritics AT humekathryn owlandthenightingalethepoemsanditscritics |
status_str |
n |
ids_txt_mv |
(DE-B1597)514016 (OCoLC)1091687964 |
carrierType_str_mv |
cr |
hierarchy_parent_title |
Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Toronto Press eBook-Package Archive 1933-1999 |
is_hierarchy_title |
The Owl and the Nightingale : The Poems and Its Critics / |
container_title |
Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Toronto Press eBook-Package Archive 1933-1999 |
_version_ |
1806143888883187712 |
fullrecord |
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The contradictoriness of the relevant avian traditions, the birds' complete incompetence as debaters, the poem's curiously indeterminate ending, and the critics' inability to agree even on the subject of the controversy, she argues, makes it difficult to see the work as a serious debate about anything. Attempts to find an extrinsic or allegorical meaning have proven radically contradictory and have all neglected large portions of the poem. But since no serious issue is present in the bird's dialogue, the meaning of the poem must indeed be sought elsewhere. Analysis of The Owl and the Nightingale's sequential impact and its manipulation of audience response emphasize the debate's lack of direction, its bitterness, and also – from the reader's point of view – its humour. Kathryn Hume argues that a great deal is clarified and made comprehensible if we regard the poem as a burlesque-satire on human contentiousness. 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