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Note to Users Gendered speech in Old English narrative poetry: A comprehensive word list Item Type text; Dissertation-Reproduction (electronic) Authors DeVito, Angela Ann Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 05/10/2021 17:46:14 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/280305 NOTE TO USERS Page(s) not included in the original manuscript and are unavailable from the author or university. The manuscript was scanned as received. 135,136,137,138,139,140,141,142,143,144,145,146,147,286,368 This reproduction is the best copy available. UMI GENDERED SPEECH IN OLD ENGLISH NARRATIVE POETRY: A COMPREBENSI¥E WORD LIST by Angela DeVito Copyright © Angela DeVito 2003 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA UMI Number: 3089985 Copyright 2003 by DeVito, Angela Ann All rights reserved. ® UMI UMI Microform 3089985 Copyright 2003 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA ® GRADUATE COLLEGE As members of the Final Examination Committee, we certify that we have read the dissertation prepared by Angela DeVito entitled Gendered Speech in Old English Narrative Poetry: A Comprehensive Word T.i st and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement for the Degree of Ph.D. in English If c, Mi A. -5 j:S/O . \ / Date' , ^ Date Date Date Final approval and acceptance of this dissertation is contingent upon the candidate's submission of the final copy of the dissertation to the Graduate College. I hereby certify that I have read this dissertation prepared under my direction and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement. /J /i Dissertation Director Date 3 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgement of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the copyright holder. SIGNED 4 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I should like to thank. Daryl L. Smith for his help in constructing the computer program which enabled me to assemble these word lists. Also, Professor Marjory E. Lange of Western Oregon University, has provided immeasurable support as a friend, colleague and academic resource during my years of research. Roger Bethel has furnished a sympathetic ear, and invaluable moral support. I also extend my sincerest gratitude to my committee members: University of Arizona Professors Meg Lota Brown, Linda Zwinger and Sigmund Eisner. Professor Brown and Professor Zwinger generously provided many helpful suggestions for improving my dissertation, and for avenues of future research. Professor Emeritus Sigmund Eisner has been my teacher and valued advisor for many years; I owe him a great debt. Finally, and most importantly, I wish to thank my committee chairman and mentor Professor Roger Dahood. Without his vision, guidance, and unwavering support this project would never have been realized. 5 DEDICATION To my mother and Una, who were always there for me. 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS aRQTRarT Pi I ^^'X'^^0 13 C''JL' I BasseaaDaBKBBasessDaeonsevnsaeaaaoaBaBaeBs^ METHODOLOGY 23 Cv ^~i TJ 3- aBeBaBBaBaBseaaBBaaaseaaeaBBBsesasBBaBBBBaB^3 EXPLANATION OF WORD LISTS 85 FEMALE SPEECH IN BEOWULF 90 FEMALE SPEECH IN CHRIST I. 97 FEMALE SPEECH IN CHRIST AND SATAN a .105 FEMALE SPEECH IN ELENE 113 FEMALE SPEECH IN GENESIS. 134 FEMALE SPEECH IN JUDITH 148 FEMALE SPEECH IN JUT,TANA 156 FEMALE SPEECH IN WAIJDERE 17 4 MALE SPEECH IN ANDREAS . a . a . .. a . a • . a . a . a a a , .. a . 181 MALE SPEECH IN BATTT.E OF FINNSRURH 240 MALE SPEECH IN BATTLE OF MALDON....b..........B..B.B.B244 MALE SPEECH IN BEOWULF 2 57 MALE SPEECH IN CHRIST I 358 MALE SPEECH IN CHRIST AND SATAN, a 366 7 TABLE OF CONTENTS-continued MALE SPEECH IN DANIEL, 369 MALE SPEECH IN F.T.ENE, ...........................395 MALE SPEECH IN EXODUS 4 33 MALE SPEECH IN GENESIS.......................... 447 MALE SPEECH IN GUTHLAC. 490 MALE SPEECH IN JUDITH 535 MALE SPEECH IN JUT,I ANA. 537 MALE SPEECH IN WALDERE 551 SELECTED REFERENCES............................ 557 8 ABSTRACT The purpose of this dissertation is to create a word list of male and female speech in those Old English narrative poems which contain dialogue, to use as a reference in determining what, if any, differences existed between the way male Anglo-Saxon poets constructed speech for their male and female characters. Using a specifically designed computer program and an on- electronically tagged those lines assigned to male characters, and then those assigned to female speakers, to generate two separate word lists. I eliminated all immortal speech (God, angels, demons), and all proper nouns as not germane to a study of male and female speech patterns. After I created the raw word lists, I parsed each individual word, and placed it under the appropriate headword. I further classified nouns, adjectives and pronouns according to case and number, and verbs according to person, number, tense and mood. In addition to the word lists, the dissertation includes a critical introduction, and a brief analysis of differences between male and female speech patterns in selected poems. 9 INTRODUCTION This project grew out of my interest in the rise of feminist studies in Old English literature, which began to gain momentum in the early 1990's. Criticism of this kind raised new, sometimes disturbing, and often unwelcome questions about how to interpret the feminine speaking subject in Old, English poetry. That feminist criticism was gaining more exposure, if not more acceptance, was evident when the usually conservative journal Speculum devoted the April 1993 issue to one theme: Studying Medieval Women: Sex, Gender, Feminism.. In this watershed publication, tension between traditional and feminist critics of Old English literature was articulated by many of the contributors, perhaps most eloquently by Judith M. Bennett who protested that the establishment held "...a perception that usually treats the combination of feminist and medieval studies as curious or anomalous or even appalling. Medievalism and feminism are an odd and unwelcorned couple" (311) . The tension between older, more established means of analyzing Old English texts—provenance, source study, philology, linguistics, and so on—and more recent "feminist" interpretations which privilege reader 10 response, psycho-linguistics, bio-feminism, deconstructionism, constructivism/constructuralism, queer studies, and any number of related theories, has certainly not lessened in the past few years. Indeed, in the introduction to Gender in Debate from the Early Middle Ages to the Renaissance, published in 2002, editors Thelma S. Fenster and Clare A. Lees, contextualize important recent works within: "anextensive (and ongoing) period of sociopolitical backlash against feminism" (2). When I undertook this proj ect, the question seemed quite clear: In light of claims made by critics increasingly interested in examining women's speech in the Old English corpus, did gender somehow relate to poetic style? Were there any demonstrable differences between the way an Anglo-Saxon poet would have constructed women's speech as opposed to men's speech? In order to determine if such differences indeed exist, I proposed to analyze each word of direct speech in Old English narrative poetry by making a comprehensive list of all words assigned to female speakers, and then a second list of all words assigned to male speakers. I would then compare the findings from the two lists 11 according to certain syntactical and grammatical criteria. I chose narrative rather than lyric poetry because the sample is larger, and except in rare instances, there is agreement about who is actually speaking, as is not the case in the lyric poetry. I will discuss the methodology and criteria I have employed for creating and comparing these word lists in much greater detail later in the introduction. First, however, I think it is important to situate my work within the community of feminist discourse. At the inception of this project, I had no intention, indeed I saw no need to question the traditional definitions of such seemingly simple terms as"feminine," "masculine," and "gender." However, I soon discovered that even those definitions which at one time were considered fundamental had become much more difficult to pin down: much "slipperier" to employ popular Derridean parlance. Where once the question might have been: How does one interpret the speech of a female character—say Juliana--as feminine, when all evidence would suggest that she was the construct of a male poet, the question has now
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