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University of OxfordHearing voices: getting more out of reading Old English texts

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3.2 Analysing literary texts

John Lye’s online guide to analysing literary texts is tailored for the use of university students, but teaches techniques that work at every level of criticism.

Group activity: Literary analysis

Work your way through John Lye’s online guide. Use the guidelines he gives for analysing poetry to make some notes about the Old English poem ‘Deor’, in a translation by Stephen Pollington, given below. Post your analysis to the Hearing voices II forum.

‘Deor’, translated by Stephen Pollington

You might also like to look at the Critical Reading website created by Professor Barry Laga at Mesa State University. This looks at both literary criticism and critical theory.

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Introduction | Old English scripts