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Virtual Speaker Series 2020/2021 #1
Professor Elaine Treharne from Stanford University and Stanford Text Technologies will join us for the first in this year's visiting speaker series, via zoom. Elaine's talk promises a lively discussion on textual representation, beautiful books and, just as a sample text, Beowulf. Join us on the 24th of September at 18h00 (BST) from wherever you are in the world. See the abstract below for more information, and don't forget to register to receive the joining link.
'Just an Illusion': Beowulf Book Beautiful
Elaine Treharne
Thursday 24th September
18h00 (BST)
I am interested in three things, all of which center on textual wholeness; my example—'Beowulf'—is simply a case study of a larger theory about representations of TEXT. I’ll ask: i) What can we say about Beowulf in the context of London, British Library, Cotton MS Vitellius A. xv—a book beautiful, without doubt; ii) How did nineteenth- and twentieth-century editors and writers try to make of Beowulf a book beautiful? iii) And finally, what can we say about a bodiless Beowulf?— ‘Beowulf Beyond’: the poem in the digital era, beyond the confines of print.
I’ll examine editions of Beowulf in a variety of media, including facsimile, digitized, and digital instantiations of the work. This will allow us—as a collaborative—to reflect upon whether or not any edition can ever be considered more than an illusion: that which is, in essence, an incorrect experience.
Last modified: Mon, 28 Sep 2020 17:11:41 BST