Representation and Design examines Old English poetry from the point of view of its interpretation, beginning with the assumption that Anglo-Saxon concepts of reading were probably very different from those that dominate our own literary culture. The book insists on the semantic interaction of representation and design, two aspects of Old English poetry that tradi tionally have been examined separately, and draws on Anglo-Saxon pictorial art as a model throughout. Through this process, she traces a fluidity of signification and suggests that an Anglo-Saxon aesthetic would be both complex and enigmatic. This book offers new insights into poems and issues at the heart of Old English literature.
Readings intelligently informed by postmodern theory are increasingly in demand in the field.