Language, Sign, and Gender in Beowulf

Download or read book Language, Sign, and Gender in Beowulf written by Gillian R. Overing and published by SIU Press. This book was released on 1990 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is not a book about what Beowulf means but how it means and how the reader participates in the process of meaning construction; to this end, it is a bringing together of contemporary critical theory and Old English poetry. Overing's primary aim is to address the poem on its own terms, to trace and develop an interpretive strategy consonant with the terms of its difference from all other poems. Beowulf's arcane structure describes cyclical repetitions and patterned intersections of themes that baffle a linear perspective; the structure suggests instead the irresolution and dynamism of deconstructionist freeplay of textual elements.