'Beowulf' in America: adaptation and conservatism in the late twentieth century

Thesis

Combining the fields of Old English studies, medievalism studies, and adaptation studies, this thesis examines the North American reception of the Old English poem 'Beowulf' through the analysis of a corpus of novelistic adaptations published during the 1970s and 1980s. It focuses on the way these authors transformed and recast 'Beowulf' — and the Grendelkin in particular — in the service of conservative ideologies during times of social, cultural, and political crisis in the United States.

Following an Introduction setting out the major methodological concepts at work throughout the dissertation, the thesis then proceeds to dedicate a chapter each to the three major 'Beowulf' adaptations published during the 1970s and 1980s. Starting in 1971 with John Gardner’s 'Grendel,' Chapter One demonstrates how, contrary to some popular misconceptions which read the work as inherently sympathetic to the titular monster, this novel characterises the premodern 'Beowulf' as a moral corrective against postmodernism and the existentialism of Jean-Paul Sartre. Chapter Two explores how Michael Crichton’s 1976 novel 'Eaters of the Dead' transforms the Old English poem according to the conservative revisionist discourse which followed the end of the Vietnam War. Chapter Three reveals the extent to which Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, and Steven Barnes’ 1987 novel 'The Legacy of Heorot' responds to the politics of Ronald Reagan and the conservative discourse of the culture wars of the 1980s, recontextualising 'Beowulf' on the metaphorical western frontier to reaffirm notions of American exceptionalism and the historical connection between 'Anglo-Saxonism' and Manifest Destiny. This focused analysis of the earliest major adaptations of 'Beowulf' in America therefore provides an important context to understand the place of the Old English poem in twenty-first century popular culture, as well as its enduring appropriation by right-wing reactionary movements.

Authors: Heller, S

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-gp5negy1o
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: adaptation; Medievalism; Old English; reception; Beowulf
• Subjects: Adaptation (Literary, artistic, etc.); Medievalism--United States--History--20th century; Medievalism in literature; Beowulf--Adaptations