| This study examines proverbial statements in Old English literature through the lens of Edmund Husserl s phenomenological method. Chapter one addresses the distinction between "proverbs" and "proverbial statements," such as maxims and gnomes (the latter more common in Old English). Studies to date have either neglected the function of proverbial statements as an integral feature of Old English literature or have failed to address the unique character of such statements as discrete, sententious utterances. Chapter two presents Husserlian phenomenology as a means of addressing how the distinct form of gnomic statements and maxims immediately presents itself to the reader within the context of Old English literature. Particular attention is given to Roman Ingarden and Wolfgang Iser's application of Husserlian phenomenology to literary criticism.;Chapters three, four, and five offer specific case-studies in which a phenomenological methodology is applied to three key forms of Old English proverbial content: maxims embedded in narrative poetry, the catalogued statements of gnomic verse, and prose proverb collections. Based on Iser's discussion of "horizons of expectation" in the reading process, chapter three addresses parallel gnomic statements in Beowulf and Andreas. The comparison illustrates that proverbial content in literature (while limiting interpretive potential in certain ways) simultaneously enables new expectations for the reader. Chapter four employs the concept of a text's "order and sequence" to discuss the reader's perception of coherence in gnomic verse. Without speculating about inaccessible intentions on the part of the Anglo-Saxon compiler, it is possible to address the way in which the presented order of gnomic statements affects how the reader synthesizes them into a meaningful text. Chapter five addresses how a particular reader's awareness of literary tradition offers a background to the otherwise decontextualized statements in prose proverb collections. The Old English rendering of the Disticha Catonis, for example, becomes intelligible in light of vernacular Judgment Day Homilies. Ultimately, this thesis does not attempt to offer a definitive overview of proverbial content in the corpus of Old English literature; however, it does propose a potential methodology whereby such an study can be achieved. |
