Epistolary Acts

Jordan Zweck is an assistant professor in the Department of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

• AbbreviationsIntroduction: Epistolary Acts and The Husband’s MessageChapter One: Reconstructing the Anglo-Saxon ars dictaminis: Form, Vocabulary, and ImmediacyChapter Two: Spreading the Word: the Sunday Letter, Mass Communication, and the Self-Replicating DocumentChapter Three: Messengers, Materiality, and Transmission in the Old English Apollonius of Tyre, Letter of Abgar, and Mary of EgyptChapter Four: Bodies of Record: Witnessing, Memory, and Erasure in Ælfric’s Life of Basil and the Anonymous Old English Legend of the Seven SleepersEpilogue: Epistolary AfterlivesBibliography

"While Old English letters have been largely neglected in the past as being of marginal literary interest and relevance, Zweck demonstrates that epistolarity was deeply engaging to Anglo-Saxon authors and audiences, "even those who may not have produced or received letters themselves." It is to be hoped that this book will stimulate further interest in Anglo-Saxon letters, both Latin and Old English." - Hugh Magennis, Queen's University Belfast (Speculum, vol 94 1, Jan 2019) "An exciting cross-fertilization of media and medieval studies, Epistolary Acts assembles Old English representations of epistolarity and communication in a wide-ranging book that will be of interest to scholars of early medieval literature and culture and to theorists of media and communication alike. Zweck is to be applauded for engaging both without losing either rigor or style."- Erica Weaver, UCLA (Journal of English and Germanic Philology) "Zweck’s book makes a significant contribution by arguing for a more inclusive understanding of epistolarity in early medieval English texts."- Emma Knowles, The University of Sydney (Parergon)