What We’re Reading

Beowulf. “Thus commenced the struggle.” Beowulf is the most famous Old English poem, a classic of heroic poetry and a work that spurs debate over the meaning and distinctions of heroic epic and heroic elegy. In teaching Beowulf, the work offers a rich multiplicity in teaching opportunities. We have the progression of heroic literature in the emergent Christian world with the obvious lines of Good and Evil being well-defined in the work. We also have the semiotics of light and darkness associated with Beowulf and the monsters he faces (especially Grendel and Grendel’s Mother). There’s the inclusion of theological instruction by the Beowulf poet with the humility and recognition of God by Beowulf and Hrothgar, not to mention the genealogical line of Grendel and other spirit monsters descending from the murderous Cain. The Bible, human nature, the Gothic world, spirits, Good and Evil, God, and the nature of heroism are all at stake in this pivotal, transitionary, poem. The world of warrior heroism isn’t quite dead. The world of Christian hope hasn’t fully blossomed. Beowulf itself is a liminal work, set in-between the transition from the Anglo-Saxon warrior past and the medieval Christian world to come. That’s what makes the work so much fun, it is a story in flux, but the quintessential elements of what makes it great are visible for all readers: Good vs. Evil, Heroism vs. Cowardice, and the reality of mortality which makes heroism all the potent and poignant.

~ Paul Krause

Lee Clay Johnson, Bloodline. Johnson’s second novel Bloodline was published as part of publishing house Panamerica’s debut release. The novel is a thrilling and violent odyssey through Eastern Tennessee, often taking place on the many rivers and creeks that thread through the countryside. The atmosphere of the novel is so vivid and thick that it could only have been written by one of Eastern Tennessee’s own sons. Very much in the vein of Cormac McCarthy and William Faulkner, Johnson tells the story of the Civil War haunted Alcorn family. He explores themes like heritage and how it’s passed down, and even if it should be passed down. The land is as much a character as the humans and has its own unrelenting willpower that, like the French Broad, has been flowing in one direction for as long as anyone can remember. Meddle with this force at your own peril!

~ Samuel Schaefer

Addison and Steele, Selections from The Tatler and The Spectator. Like other notable post-Cromwell writers, Addison and Steele worked to critically analyze England and share, through the form of letters and essays, in “The Tatler” and “The Spectator.” These two publications were quite risqué, which would explain why many of their entries are nearly impossible to find today. To my luck, there is a bookstore in my town that collects unusual books, and both “The Tatler” and “The Spectator” found themselves in my possession. Quite honestly, each publication played its purpose during the eighteenth-century because it acted as another news/gossip outlet for academic intellectuals to sift the new writing world after Charles II. Without Addison and Steele, writers did not have a safe space.

~ Sarah Tillard

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