A Life Both Public and Private: Expressions of Individuality in Old English Poetry

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The concept of the individual or the self in the modern world is important and well-understood in many contexts. However, these ideas have mostly not been investigated in any real depth when it comes to looking at the Anglo-Saxon period, and by looking at Old English poetry in general. Some attempts have been made in recent years, but for the most part these investigations look at ideas of the self that are intangible, unknowable, and more metaphysical rather than something we can clearly define and analyze by reading literature.

The current investigation remedies these issues by arguing that a unique sense of self for Anglo-Saxons may be found by looking at their surviving poetry. For the first time, there is an extended monograph on the concept of the individual outside of her community during this period in history. Finally, the conclusion demonstrates that the studies which argue that the individual was something that did not really exist until the Renaissance are unfounded and do not stand up to scrutiny.