{"product_id":"mortal-forms-evelyn-reynolds-9780814216064","title":"Mortal Forms: Affect and Temporality in Early English Poetry","description":"In \u003ci\u003eMortal Forms, \u003c\/i\u003e Evelyn Reynolds introduces the concept of the \"absorption-denial dynamic\" to explore how medieval English poetic forms simultaneously invite and resist imaginative and affective engagement. She thus offers a model for understanding how language engages audiences with that which is beyond language. This new methodology helps us understand how poetic forms communicate the unspeakable--especially of loss and grief, pain and disgust, joy and eternity--without circumscribing it. Connecting medieval English poetics to modern aesthetic theory and broader questions about the limits of representation, Reynolds considers Old and Middle English poems alongside one another and reads texts achronologically, thus revising standard histories of English poetics that insist on dramatic change from Old to Middle English. Overall, Reynolds deftly deploys her innovative theoretical framework to attend to how medieval poems, from \u003ci\u003eBeowulf\u003c\/i\u003e to \u003ci\u003ePiers Plowman, \u003c\/i\u003e navigate the limits of the unspeakable--and thus to develop an understanding of poetics that can enrich our capacity to meet the losses of our own time.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Evelyn Reynolds\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0814216064\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780814216064\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Ohio State University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 02\/17\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 212\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.00lbs","brand":"Evelyn Reynolds","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":48440560287999,"sku":"9780814216064","price":99.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_ce250d31-ea8e-48da-914f-86c7f689af69.jpg?v=1777183250","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/mortal-forms-evelyn-reynolds-9780814216064","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}