Dream School...

Michael Drout has posted an interesting vision of his pedagogical dream over at his blog.  I think this post presents an intersection of many interests on this blog: academics, pedagogy, educational systems/institutions, and the medieval (to name a few of the first things that strike me).  There is certainly a lot to unpack in his post, and I'm hoping for some of your collective input on the idea.  What are the aspects of cultural wealth and liabilities (to use Martin's terms--which are always, forevermore, with me) inherent in this type of project?  Could such ideals be presented in other types of educational curricula (e.g. public high schools, other sites of education in our society)?

My first reactions to Drout's vision is favororable: after all, I will be looking for a teaching/research/academic job of my own in about 4 years, and this type of opportunity would be great.  My own desires to see opportunities like the one Drout proposes is especially fueled by increasingly public discussions of the role(s) of humanities in educational institutions, and the anxieties surrounding jobs in these areas (for a few examples of the emerging dialog, see articles here [esp. this one!], here, here, here, and here).  Also, I'm largely a proponent of presenting students with the complexities of higher level academics at the high school level; in large part, I think my senior-year English teacher did this (esp. with mythology and medieval literature), and I continue to carry those influences on my life.  I see a lot of Jane Roland Martin's own ideas coming out here, in terms of cultural wealth and liabilities, and I think this opens up a lot of theoretical space for thinking about the ways in which society presents information and education.  Drout's ideas do well to bring out the ways in which society may need to reshape such (re)presentations.  For example, is one of our cultural liabilities the ways in which we conceptualize academics as the "White Tower" of the University or Academy?  With a school like Drout has envisioned, could one of our inherent cultural wealths be the opportunity to push some students toward new intellectual avenues?

Essentially, I'm hoping that these intersecting ideas will help spark a new form of dialog--touching on many of the issues brought out before, but also pointing toward other issues to frame how academics and society intersect.

Sir Gawain and the Gush of Translations...

Today in my email I received a link to a new "innovative translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" by Adam Golaski (professor of creative writing at the University of Connecticut), which he has titled Green. So far, Golaski's released on section a month, started in December: here is fit one, part one; here is fit one, part two.

I also recently bought the new (and also acclaimed as innovative) translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Simon Armitage (W. W. Norton, 2007), and have so far read about the first fit.

Why all the surge of Sir Gawain? I don't know, but he (and his poem) seems to be gaining popularity in the public eye. Perhaps he'll start giving Beowulf a run for his money, although that might take a major motion picture release, and we haven't seen (or hear rumors of ) one of those since 1984 (film title: Sword of the Valiant: The Legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight). I'm interested in people's thoughts on this: either about the growing popularity of the Middle English poem or about the translations. As Gawain himself would say, "Haf at þe þenne!"

[Cross-posted at Point of Know Return.]

Beowulf Movie...

Leslie has been asking me to post my thoughts on the new Beowulf movie, so I'm offering the following.

I saw Beowulf (the movie), but I'm hesitant to post any sort of review; there are already so many Anglo-Saxonist (and other medievalist) voices out there talking about it, I don't think I would add much to the many thoughts. I recommend reading a few that have sparked certain amounts of resonance with what I thought about the movie. Here are some names and links to their reviews and thoughts. Beware of plot spoilers.
Michael Drout
Dr. Virago
Jennifer Lynn Jordan (another newly acquainted blogging medieval studies grad student)

The review I most resonate with is Mary Kate Hurley's, over at ITM, not so much for its general perceptions, but for her discussion of what such an adaptation means for the long and continuing history of Beowulf. It's a beautiful post, with great reflections on the life of the poem. She's put into words some of the things I was searching for in my "Prevailing Poetry," and she says them better than I could.

I was was having a conversation with one of my friends in the English MA here at UConn about the Beowulf movie, which then moved into a discussion about translations. Toward the end of the conversation, he mentioned how fascinating it is to realize that we always go back to the Old English poem. Although we keep translating, over and over, those translations still need reworked after a time, the old renderings set aside, the new ones reworked for a new audience. He said that he thinks this was the goal of Seamus Heaney with his translation--to provide a new rendering that spoke to the audience of everyone, not only English majors who would read the poem but also anyone who wanted to pick up the poem and enjoy it. Then he hinted that, someday, even Heaney's translation will be set aside for a new one. But we will always return to the original text, the Anglo-Saxon words that still speak to us and fascinate us from over one thousand years ago. And I think that this life--the life of a poem that keeps speaking to us--is the one that MKH is alluding to in her post. That life is not ended. I especially think the last words of her post speak most powerfully of her reflections:

Maybe there's something yet to learn from this Beowulf, beyond Angelina Jolie's nudity and Beowulf's bad lines. Maybe it can speak to something more than the sum of the parts of the past it inherited. Maybe its resurrection at this cultural moment is itself of value. And maybe we're too close -- temporally, spiritually -- to see this movie for what it might be: another performance of a poem whose ending has not been written yet.

As to my own opinion about the movie, I mostly enjoyed it--as a movie. Walking into the theater, I set aside my critical nature as someone who dissects texts as well as my Anglo-Saxonist side, and I went in hoping to watch and enjoy a movie based upon a story I have loved since I was ten years old. As both a movie and an interpretation, of course it had flaws. Gaiman and Avery made interesting interpretive moves that clearly brought out certain parts of the poem, at the expense of certain other aspects. Of course, those moves also brought out certain aspects that were important to put into the movie. The central plot change--of the relationships between the monsters--helped to smooth over the poem into a more unified poem, with a plot line that moved with connections to everything previously--a sense found in the poem only in the character of Beowulf, not in the actual plot. Of course, this should have been expected, given the nature of plot-driven Hollywood films. I never expected a movie exactly corresponding to the poem; we can never expect that of a movie. But we can at least find certain merits (Grendel's mother playing a philological game with Beowulf's name, the integration of Christian and pagan elements, the postmodern questions about storytelling, to name just a few) for watching the movie and engaging in discussion about it.

[Cross-Posted at Point of Know Return.]

While visions of Grendel danced in their heads...

Recently, I was talking to a colleague in the medieval studies department here at UConn about the new Beowulf movie, and we hit upon what we think is a very interesting project to undertake. As happy (or unhappy, for some people) as we are to see Anglo-Saxon literature hitting the big screen, it will, like all movies, present an interpretation of the material that will influence a far greater audience than any of the others. Because of this, my friend and I proposed the Grendel Drawing Project to our department. In the same spirit, I'm also proposing the project to readers and contributors of this blog in the hopes that you all will help me in this effort.

Grendel is not described in much detail in the Anglo-Saxon text, and because of this, readers' conceptions of him vary widely. So what does your Grendel look like? Because of this, I'm looking to get as many people as possible to draw Grendel for me, using whatever media they wish. It does not matter whether you can draw well or not--we simply want to see your version. I'd like to use these images in a future project, probably as part of my ongoing fascination with the Beowulf story in popular consciousness. I'm interested (before the movie taints your visions of Grendel) in how many people view the creature in their minds.

I know it's a busy part of the semester for everyone, but in the next few weeks, could you take time out of your schedule to draw up your vision of Grendel? This is supposed to be a fun project, so let your imagination loose! Please feel free to spread the word, too (as I could use images from anyone who has read the poem). If you find the time, email your image to me at: brandonwhawk [at] gmail [dot] com.

[Cross-posted at Point of Know Return.]