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John D. NilesProfessor |
Degrees and InstitutionsPhD, Comparative Literature, University of California, Berkeley, 1972 Research InterestsOld and Middle English Language and Literature, especially Beowulf; comparative medieval literature (English, Old Norse, Celtic, Old French), comparative folklore and mythology; theory of oral literature and the workings of oral tradition, particularly with regard to oral epic poetry, the ballad, and contemporary singing and storytelling traditions in Scotland.. Selected PublicationsBooks Beowulf: The Poem and Its Tradition (1983); Homo Narrans: The Poetics and Anthropology of Oral Literature (1999); Old English Enigmatic Poems and the Play of the Texts (2006); Old English Heroic Poems and the Social Life of Texts (2007); Beowulf and Lejre (2007). Editions Old English Literature in Context: Ten Essays (1980); The European Folktale: Form and Nature (translated, 1982); Anglo-Scandinavian England (1989); A Beowulf Handbook (co-edited, 1997); Anglo-Saxonism and the Construction of Social Identity (co-edited, 1997); Beowulf: An Illustrated Edition (2007); Klaeber's Beowulf, 4th edition (co-edited, 2008). Articles Ca. 55 articles in refereed journals and edited collections including American Journal of Semiotics, Anglo-Saxon Studies, College English, English Studies, Exemplaria, Folklore, History Today, Journal of American Folklore, Modern Language Quarterly, Oral Tradition, Philological Quarterly, PMLA, Scandinavian Studies, Specululm, Western Folklore. Personal StatementI like to test all truths, especially the ones that I used to find acceptable. Anthropological approaches to literature are my specialty, but sometimes literature has to resist any "approach." I love Homer and sometimes find myself wishing that all poets could rise to a similarly eloquent humanity, and I admire the Beowulf poet for having achieved at times a comparable eloquence. I am interested not only in what we know but in how we think we know it, and in the history of that enterprise. |
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