Woman As Hero in Old English Literature [Paperback]

Jane Chance (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Chance (English, Rice University) sees women in Anglo-Saxon literature as heroic rather than peripheral. Good women are modeled on the Virgin Mary, bad ones on Eve. Less obvious is woman's role as ``peace-weaver'': through marriage and childbearing, she linked tribes; through her ritual role in the mead-hall, she strengthened the comitatus. Grendel's vengeful mother, then, is an ``inversion'' of the Anglo-Saxon ideal of woman. The book is a useful supplement to the more general works on Anglo-Saxon literature focusing on man the warrior; its primary audience is the specialist in the period or the student of women in literature. Margaret Hallissy, English Dept., Long Island Univ., C.W. Post Campus, Greenvale, N.Y.
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 156 pages
• Publisher: Syracuse Univ Pr (Sd); 1st edition (December 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0815623461
• ISBN-13: 978-0815623465
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,669,277 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jane Chance, the Andrew W. Mellon Distinguished Chair in English at Rice University, has taught medieval literature for forty years, first, at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, after receiving her Ph.D. in English from the University of Illinois in 1971, and then at Rice University, beginning in 1973. Former first President and founder of the Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages, Inc., Chance has published twenty-one books and nearly a hundred articles and book reviews, on mythography and the Latin influence on medieval literary culture, Old and Middle English literature, Chaucer, medieval women, and modern medievalism (Tolkien in particular). Winner of many awards and national fellowships, she has edited three book series, most recently the Praeger Series on the Middle Ages, and served as Vice President of the Texas Faculty Association. She serves on several editorial boards, including those for PMLA and postmedieval: a journal of medieval cultural studies.

Jane Chance lives in Galveston and pursues her interests in photography and historic architecture. She lives in a house built by Sam Houston's great nephew, Major Samuel Moore Penfield, which has been awarded Landmark status by the city of Galveston and the Texas Historic Commission. She won the Galveston Historic Foundation award for historical preservation in the construction of her new garage.