Tradition and Belief: Religious Writing in Late Anglo-Saxon England by Clare A. Lees (review)

Abstract

HZARTHURIANA clare a. lees, Tradition andBelief: Religious Writing in LateAnglo-Saxon England. Medieval Cultures Vol. 19. Minneapolis: University ofMinnesota Press, 1999. Pp. xvii, 196. isbn: 0-8166-3003-8. $19.95. This book delivers less than is promised by its title, theses, and statements ofpurpose. Professor Lees is ambitious in her proposals. Her book: contributes to debates about the evolving meaning ofcultural studies by concentrating on the theoretically problematic areas of history, religious belief, and aesthetics.!...] Those interested in the existing, emergent, and archaic forms ofreligious beliefin the West now have much to learn from the structures ofbeliefin earlierWestern societies, whichwereequally—thoughdifferently—instrumentalintransformingandmodeling whole areas of social, cultural, and political experience, (viii) Such examinations would indeed compel reading and interest. Unfortunately, no fresh cultural studies ofAnglo-Saxon England follow, but at best meta-critical digests ofprevious studies, as Lees in part acknowledges (ix). Thiswork participates in a characteristic fault ofcontemporary theory generally— that ofdisingenuously representing previous eras and schools ofliterary history as monolithic and simplistic in character. Following is Lees's assessment ofhow literary history has heretofore defined the traditional text: 'one that makes no significant break with or contribution to its genre; a traditional text is one that is not new. Literary traditions, then, imply stasis...' (40). Literary history, she asserts, 'uses tradition as a term ofnegative aesthetic judgment rather than as an instrument in the analysis of a sociohistorical process' (28). Certainly my professors of AngloSaxon , Milton, and Restoration never used the term in such away, and their courses would have made little sense if they had. 'Medievalists who exclude the traditional will not only continue to exclude the Anglo-Saxon period, but vast areas ofsocial and cultural experience from the high medieval period as well' (43). I know no medievalists vaguely resembling this description. The literary history Lees evokes is a straw man. Perhaps because of her theoretical opposition to conventional literary history, Lees is not content to offer in this volume the study in which she is most admirably prepared to engage, a critical examination ofthe att ofAbbot KXfric ofEynsham. I am inclined to Professor Lees's view that jElfric is under-appreciated or at least not often enough read. As someone who also has studied the invention ofthe audience ofvernacular spiritual instruction in the age beforesystematic vernacular instruction, I assent to the view that yElfric is a vital literary figure. Lees's book is at its best in detailed examination of/Elfric's art and in assessment ofhis unique and considerable place in the development ofan English homiletic tradition, not to mention English prose style. More dose reading ofjElfric would have been very welcome. Beyond the difficulties I have cited, this study is turgid and verbose, given to abstractions and excesses ofthejargon ofcontemporary theory. Consider this passage: BeliefinChristianitymakesanewsubjectthroughtheacquisitionofvirtue('godnysse'), whichentailsmentaldisciplineinthepresenceofGod'sgrace;rhematerialbody,however, remains the same. Underlying this process are the distinctions between the visible and the invisible, the literal and the spiritual, the Old and the New, also used by the REVIEWS143 Circumcision homily. These distinctions chart the significatory process ofChristian typology. (121) I cannot know what 'chart the significatory process of should express to me that 'illustrate' would not. Unraveled from its difficult composition, the point is not new or distinctive, nor is the point of any part of the surrounding paragraph, but Lees's stilted and estranged style suggests novelty or discovery while rehearsing the familiar. The project as a whole suffers from a similar obfuscation. The conclusion, something short of two printed pages, asserts that 'each chapter of Tradition and Beliefopens up new avenues ofinvestigation into the Anglo-Saxon cultural record' and 'offers a way of thinking about cultural power as a dynamic network of interconnecting practices and discourses' (155). That sentence is a fair measure of the clarity, new contribution, and valuable insight offered in this work. SHEARLE FURNISH West Texas A&M University Françoise MELTZER, For Fear ofthe Fire:Joan ofArc and the Limits ofSubjectivity. The University ofChicago Press, 2001. Pp. x, 248. isbn: 0-226-51982-1. $52. (cloth), $20. (paper). This compelling book investigates the 'epistemologica! baggage' behind the continual resuscitation ofJoan ofArc in art, literature, and philosophical meditation. Meltzer elucidates in exquisite depth what I imagine anyscholar...