{"product_id":"the-cultural-world-in-beowulf-paperback-softback-9780802074386","title":"The Cultural World in Beowulf (Paperback \/ softback) 9780802074386","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eThe Cultural World in Beowulf\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eJohn M Hill (Author)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9780802074386\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003ePaperback \/ softback, published 15 December 1995\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e234 pages\u003cbr\u003e22.9 x 15.3 x 1.5 cm, 0.32 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eBeowulf\u003c\/em\u003e is one of the most important poems in Old English and the first major poem in European vernacular language. It dramatizes behavior in a complex social world-a martial, aristocratic world that we often distort by imposing on it our own biases and values. In this cross-disciplinary study, John Hill looks at \u003cem\u003eBeowulf\u003c\/em\u003e from a comparative ethnological point of view. He provides a thorough examination of the socio-cultural dimensions of the text and compares the social milieu of \u003cem\u003eBeowulf \u003c\/em\u003eto that of similarly organized cultures. Through examination of historical analogs in northern Europe and France, as well as past and present societies on the Pacific rim in Southeast Asia, a complex and extended society is uncovered and an astonishingly different \u003cem\u003eBeowulf\u003c\/em\u003e is illuminated.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe study is divided into five major essays: on ethnology and social drama, the temporal world, the legal world, the economy of honour, and the psychological world. Hill presents a realm where genealogies incorporate social and political statements: in this world gift giving has subtle and manipulative dimensions, both violent and peaceful exchange form a political economy, acts of revenge can be baleful or have jural force, and kinship is as much a constructible fact as a natural one. Family and kinship relations, revenge themes, heroic poetry, myth, legality, and political discussions all bring the importance of the social institutions in \u003cem\u003eBeowulf \u003c\/em\u003eto the foreground, allowing for a fuller understanding of the poems and its implications for Anglo-Saxon society. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"University of Toronto Press","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52681821225240,"sku":"9780802074386","price":22.88,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/the-cultural-world-in-beowulf-paperback-softback-9780802074386","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}