The Journal of English and Germanic Philology articles from January 1997

The Journal of English and Germanic Philology archives from January 1997

The Translator's Invisibility: A History of Translation.
January 1, 1997... THE TRANSLATOR'S INVISIBILITY: A HISTORY OF TRANSLATION. By Lawrence Venuti. London and New York: Routledge, 1995. Pp. xii + 353. $65. Despite its subtitle, this book does not offer a history of translation. It offers instead a Foucaultian...

Peddling My Wares.
January 1, 1997... PEDDLING MY WARES. By Ivar Lo-Johansson. Translation and Introduction by Rochelle Wright. Columbia, S.C.: Camden House, 1995. Pp. xi + 229. $44.95. Very early on in the young protagonist's narrative, he announces the purpose of the journey he...

Agrip af Noregskonungasogum.
January 1, 1997... AGRIP AF NOREGSKONUNGASOGUM. Edited and translated by M.J. Driscoll. (Viking Society of Northern Research Text Series, 10.) London: Viking Society for Northern Research, 1995. Pp. xxv + 126. Matthew J. Driscoll provides us here with an edition...

The Conflict of Law and Justice in the Icelandic Sagas.
January 1, 1997... THE CONFLICT OF LAW AND JUSTICE IN THE ICELANDIC SAGAS. By William Pencak. (Value Inquiry Book Series, 21.) Amsterdam and Atlanta, Ga.: Rodopi, 1995. Pp. xxi + 178. $37.50. Old Norse scholars welcome works that eloquently confer the...

La 'Matiere du Nord.' Sagas legendaires et fiction dans la litterature islandaise en prose du XIII siecle.
January 1, 1997... LA `MATIERE DU NORD.' SAGAS LEGENDAIRES ET FICTION DANS LA LITTERATURE ISLANDAISE EN PROSE DU XIIE SIECLE. Par Torfi H. Tulinius. Paris: Presses de l'Universite de Paris-Sorbonne, 1995. Pp. 303. FF 180. The corpus of texts to which this...

Schriftlichkeit im fruhen Mittelalter.
January 1, 1997... SCHRIFFLICHKEIT IM FRUHEN MITTELALTER. Herausgegeben von Ursula Schaefer. (ScriptOralia, 53). Tubingen: Gunter Narr, 1993. Pp. vii + 292. DM 124. Schriftlichkeit im fruhen Mittelalter is a collection of revised symposium papers that were...

Images of Adventure: Ywain in the Visual Arts.
January 1, 1997... IMAGES OF ADVENTURE: YWAIN IN THE VISUAL ARTS. By James A. Rushing, Jr. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995. PP. xiv + 300. $39.95. Ywain, knight of King Arthur's famed Table Round, was not a prisoner of such texts as Chretien...

Die Verfugbarkeit der Fiktion: Interpretationen und poetologische Untersuchungen zum Artusroman und zur aventiurehaften Dietrichepik des 13. Jahrhunderts.
January 1, 1997... DIE VERFUGBARKEIT DER FIKTION: INTERPRETATIONEN UND POETOLOGISCHE UNTERSUCHUNGEN ZUM ARTUSROMAN UND ZUR AVENTIUREHAFTEN DIETRICHEPIK DES 13. JAHRHUNDERTS. Von Matthias Meyer. Heidelberg: Universitatsverlag C. Winter, 1994. PP. viii + 311. DM 98....

Koninc Ermenrikes Dot: Die niederdeutsche Flugschrift 'Van Dirick van dem Berne' und 'Van Juncker Baltzer'; Uberlieferung, Kommentar, Interpretation.
January 1, 1997... KONINC ERMENRIKES DOT: DIE NIEDERDEUTSCHE FLUGSCHRIFT `VAN DIRICK VAN DEM BERNE' UND `VAN JUNCKER BALTZER'; UBERLIEFERUNG, KOMMENTAR, INTERPRETATION. Von Hilkert Weddige. (Hermaea Germanistische Forschungen, Neue Folge, Bd. 76.) Tubingen: Max...

Till Eulenspiegel: His Adventures.
January 1, 1997... TILL EULENSPIEGEL: HIS ADVENTURES. Translated by Paul Oppenheimer. (The World's Classics.) Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. PP. xxxix + 209. $8.95. Paul Oppenheimer's highly readable translation of Ein kurtzweilig lesen von...

Literature as Social Action. Modernist and Traditional Narratives in Germany in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries.
January 1, 1997... LITERATURE AS SOCIAL ACTION. MODERNIST AND TRADITIONAL NARRATIVES IN GERMANY IN THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES. By Pamela Currie. Columbia, S.C.: Camden House, 1995. Pp. x + 258. $54.95. Studies of German social and literary history...

The Beautiful Soul: Aesthetic Morality in the Eighteenth Century.
January 1, 1997... THE BEAUTIFUL SOUL: AESTHETIC MORALITY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. By Robert E. Norton. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1995. Pp. xi + 314. $35. Norton's reconstruction of the history of the beautiful soul from the time of the early European...

Die Bandigung der Wilden Seele: Literatur und Leidenschaft in der Aufklarung.
January 1, 1997... DIE BANDIGUNG DER WILDEN SEELE: LITERATUR UND LEIDENSCHAFT IN DER AUFKLXRUNG. Von Matthias Luserke. Stuttgart and Weimar: J. B. Metzler, 1995. Pp. 459. DM 118. In the German aesthetic debates of the eighteenth century, catharsis was a vexing...

West-ostlicher Divan.
January 1, 1997... WEST-OSTLICHER DIVAN. Von Johann Wolfgang Goethe. Herausgegeben von Hendrik Birus. Samtliche Werke, Briefe, Tagebucher und Gesprache (= Frankfurter Ausgabe). I. Abteilung, Bd.3/I und 3/II. Frankfurt am Main: Deutscher Klassiker Verlag, 1994. Pp....

Russian Symbolism and Literary Interpretation: Goethe, Novalis, and the Poetics of Vyacheslav Ivanov.
January 1, 1997... RUSSIAN SYMBOLISM AND LITERARY INTERPRETATION: GOETHE, NOVALIS, AND THE POETICS OF VYACHESLAV IVANOV. By Michael Wachtel. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1994. Pp. xi+247. $47.50. The subject of Michael Wachtel's book is Vyacheslav...

Georg Buchner: The Shattered Whole.
January 1, 1997... GEORGE BUCHNER: THE SHATTERED WHOLE. By John Reddick. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995. Pp. x + 395. $65. Since the publication nearly two decades ago of the last major studies of Buchner in English, new documents have been discovered,...

Allegorische Texturen: Studien zum Prosawerk Clemens Brentanos.
January 1, 1997... ALLEGORISCHE TEXTUREN: STUDIEN ZUM PROSAWERK CLEMENS BRENTANOS. Von Bettina Knauer. (Hermaea, 77.) Tubingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag, 1995. Pp. vi + 270. DM 84. Diese gut recherchierte Studie gehort zweifellos zu den bisher besten Versuchen, die...

Franz Werfel: Sein Weg in den Roman.
January 1, 1997... FRANZ WERFEL: SEIN WEG IN DEN ROMAN. Von Wolfgang Paulsen. Tubingen und Basel: Francke Verlag, 1995. Pp.293. DM 96. It can be considered a stroke of luck that Franz Werfel, that great Austrian narrator, found such an eloquent, knowledgeable,...

Leibhafter Sinn: Der andere Diskurs der Moderne.
January 1, 1997... LEIBHAFTER SINN: DER ANDERE DISKURS DER MODERNE. Von Georg Braungart. (Studien zur deutschen Literatur, Band 130.) Tubingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag, 1995. Pp. vi + 415. DM 98. Braungart constructs an alternate genealogy of modernist writing...

Autor, Macht, Staat: Literatur und Politik in Deutschland: Ein Notwendiger Dialog.
January 1, 1997... AUTOR, MACHT, STAAT: LITERATUR UND POLITIK IN DEUTSCHLAND: EIN NOTWENDIGER DIALOG. Herausgegeben von Gerd Langguth. Dusseldorf: Droste Verlag, 1994. Pp. 197. Dieses Buch vereint zehn Artikel von Politikern, Soziologen, Historikern,...

The Text and Tradition of Layamon's Brut.
January 1, 1997... THE TEXT AND TRADITION OF LAZAMON'S BRUT. Edited by Francoise Le Saux. (Arthurian Studies, 33.) Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1994. Pp. x + 272. The seventeen essays in this volume cover an admirably wide range of issues concerning the verse...

'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight' and French Arthurian Romance.
January 1, 1997... `SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT' AND FRENCH ARTHURIAN ROMANCE. By Ad Putter. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995. Pp. xii + 279. $49.95. The relationship between Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and earlier French romance has long been a subject of...

Northern English Books, Owners, and Makers in the Late Middle Ages.
January 1, 1997... NORTHERN ENGLISH BOOKS, OWNERS, AND MAKERS IN THE LATE MIDDLE AGES. By John B. Friedman. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1995. Pp. xxvi + 423; 52 illustrations. $30.05. For students of medieval English books, one of the remaining...

Robin Hood: A Complete Study of the English Outlaw.
January 1, 1997... ROBIN HOOD: A COMPLETE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH OUTLAW. By Stephen Knight. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1994. Pp. xi + 308; 24 illustrations. $49.95 (cloth); $19.95 (paper). A few years ago The Observer ambitiously endorsed J. C. Holt's Robin Hood...

The Renaissance Bible: Scholarship, Sacrifice, and Subjectivity.
January 1, 1997... THE RENAISSANCE BIBLE: SCHOLARSHIP, SACRIFICE, AND SUBJECTIVITY. By Debora Kuller Shuger. (The New Historicism: Studies in Cultural Poetics, 29.) Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994. Pp. xv + 297; 6 illustrations. $40. In the words...

The Performance of Conviction: Plainness and Rhetoric in the Early English Renaissance.
January 1, 1997... THE PERFORMANCE OF CONVICTION: PLAINNESS AND RHETORIC IN THE EARLY ENGLISH RENAISSANCE. By Kenneth J. E. Graham. (Rhetoric and Society Series.) Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1994. Pp. xiv + 232. $35. Graham's intelligent study takes a fresh...

The Rest is Silence: Death as Annihilation in the English Renaissance.
January 1, 1997... THE REST IS SILENCE: DEATH AS ANNIHILATION IN THE ENGLISH RENAISSANCE. By Robert Watson. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994. Pp. 416. $52. Agnosticism in the Renaissance has long been a subject of interest. Recently it has made...

Spenser's Famous Flight: A Renaissance Idea of a Literary Career.
January 1, 1997... SPENSER'S FAMOUS FLIGHT: A RENAISSANCE IDEA OVA LITERARY CAREER. By Patrick Cheney. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1993. Pp. xvii + 360; 11 illustrations. $60. Critical concern with Spenser's "career" has of late become a growth...

What Was Shakespeare? Renaissance Plays and Changing Critical Practice.
January 1, 1997... WHAT WAS SHAKESPEARE? RENAISSANCE PLAYS AND CHANGING CRITICAL PRACTICE. By Edward Pechter. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1995. Pp. xiv + 200. $12.95 (paper). Edward Pechter's highly engaging and highly engrossing book on the state of...

The Authorship of Shakespeare's Plays: A Socio-linguistic Study.
January 1, 1997... THE AUTHORSHIP OF SHAKESPEARE'S PLAYS: A SOCIO-LINGUISTIC STUDY. By Jonathan Hope. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994. Pp. xix + 188. $49.95. Acknowledging the difficulty of assigning authorship to Elizabethan and Jacobean plays when...

Authority, Church, and Society in George Herbert: Return to the Middle Way.
January 1, 1997... AUTHORITY, CHURCH, AND SOCIETY IN GEORGE HERBERT: RETURN TO THE MIDDLE WAY. By Christopher Hodgkins. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1993. Pp. xiii + 231. $39-95. In this book, Christopher Hodgkins makes a major contribution to Herbert...

Origin and Authority in Seventeenth-Century England: Bacon, Milton, Butler.
January 1, 1997... ORIGIN AND AUTHORITY IN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY ENGLAND: BACON, MILTON, BUTLER. By Alvin Snider. Toronto, Buffalo, London: University of Toronto Press, 1994. Pp. ix + 286. $65. Snider has set himself the formidable yet entirely admirable task of...

John Gay: A Profession of Friendship.
January 1, 1997... JOHN GAY: A PROFESSION OF FRIENDSHIP. By David Nokes. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. Pp. xvi + 563. $39.95. John Gay has always been something of a cypher. He has been seen as lapdog to Pope and Swift, flukily lucky author...

The Theatres of War: Performance, Politics, and Society, 1793-1815.
January 1, 1997... THE THEATRES WAR: PERFORMANCE, POLITICS, AND SOCIETY, 1793-1815. By Gillian Russell. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995. PP. xii+ 211. $49.95. Over the past ten years, numerous book-length studies of Romantic drama have appeared. Books by Alan...

Margaret Oliphant: Critical Essays on a Gentle Subversive.
January 1, 1997... MARGARET OLIPHANT: CRITICAL ESSAYS ON A GENTLE SUBVERSIVE. Edited by D. J. Trela. Selingsgrove, Penn.: Susquehanna University Press, 1995. Pp. 190. $33.50. Widely read and much admired during her lifetime (1828-1897), Margaret Oliphant sank...

Almayer's Folly: A Story of an Eastern River.
January 1, 1997... ALMAYER'S FOLLY: A STORY OF AN EASTERN RIVER. By Joseph Conrad. Edited by Floyd Eugene Eddleman and David Leon Higdon. Introduction by Ian Watt. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994. Pp. x + 258; 2 illustrations, maps. $69.95. Almayer's...

James Joyce and the Language of History: Dedalus's Nightmare.
January 1, 1997... JAMES JOYCE AND THE LANGUAGE OF HISTORY: DEDALUS'S NIGHTMARE. By Robert Spoo. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994- Pp. xii + 195- $39-95. The germ of Robert Spoo's James Joyce and the Language of History may be found in the "Nestor"...

Mark Twain on the Loose: A Comic Writer and the American Self.
January 1, 1997... MARK TWAIN ON THE LOOSE: A COMIC WRITER AND THE AMERICAN SELF. By Bruce Michelson. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1995. Pp. ix + 269. $45 (cloth); $16.95 (paper). Bruce Michelson maintains a useful Aristotelian balance in his book...

Black and White Strangers: Race and American Literary Realism.
January 1, 1997... BLACK AND WHITE STRANGERS; RACE AND AMERICAN LITERARY REALISM. By Kenneth W. Warren. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1993. Pp. ix + x68. $27.50. Like Toni Morrison, Kenneth Warren believes that race has permeated American fiction by...

Double-Consciousness/Double Bind: Theoretical Issues in Twentieth-Century Black Literature.
January 1, 1997... DOUBLE-CONSCIOUSNESS/DOUBLE BIND: THEORETICAL ISSUES IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY BLACK LITERATURE. By Sandra Adell. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994. Pp. ix + 172. $25.95. A bold attempt to reorient African American literary studies in the...

The 'Liber Eliensis' "Historical Selections" and the Old English 'Battle of Maldon.'
January 1, 1997... There are two major extended accounts of the death of Byrhtnoth and the battle of Maldon in early English literature, the first and by far the most famous being the Old English poem that is called (by common consent) The Battle of Maldon, and the...

"Danish men's words are worse than murder": Viking guile and 'The Battle of Maldon.'
January 1, 1997... In a recent article, James W. Earl treats, among a variety of issues, the critical response to the nature of both Beowulf's and Byrhtnoth's heroic ideal, an ethic of contradiction that "appears as a suicidal logic of unresolvable conflicts."(1)...

Pinning Gawain down: the misediting of 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.'
January 1, 1997... "The annotator, if he's a good one, presents a reading that will create the acceptable range of conversation within the group he supposedly serves." --Ralph Hanna III(1) The longer and more closely I have worked with Sir Gawain and the...

Preventing wizards: the Magi in Milton's Nativity Ode.
January 1, 1997... John Milton's portrayals, throughout his work, of the Magi whose veneration of the infant Christ is celebrated on the Feast of the Epiphany can prompt widely divergent commentary. His description of them as "Star-led Wizards" in the Nativity Ode...

The Captain as catalyst in Goethe's 'Wahlverwandtschaften.'
January 1, 1997... Of the four main characters in Goethe's Die Wahlverwandtschaften,(1) the least interpreted figure is the Captain. He is usually seen as a major character, yet he generally receives only scant attention from critics. His role is seldom judged...