Review by Choice Review
This stimulating volume links study of four separate concepts, the three mentioned in the subtitle and, in the last chapter, a fourth, retrotopia, which is particularly timely. Retrotopia deals with the development of "Anglo-Saxon studies" from the time of Archbishop of Canterbury Matthew Parker in the 17th century to the present, with a focus on recent controversies and analyses. Enshrined in the chapter title is "the myth of origins" that everyone learned in school, about the "migration" of Angles, Saxons, and Jutes to what became England. The myth was convenient and readily adopted in England and the US from the time of Jefferson, but eventually widely doubted, especially in recent decades. In the earlier chapters Karkov (art history, Univ. of Leeds, UK) uses three case studies to trace the early English preoccupations with their adopted myth of violent conquest: Alfred the Great's preface to Pope Gregory I's Pastoral Care (Utopia), the carvings on the Franks Casket (heterotopia), and the Beowulf manuscripts, especially the Wonders of the East illustrations (dystopia). Briskly written and including a rich bibliography and references to current scholarship, the book casts a wide net into both critical theory and Anglo-Saxon studies. It deserves a wide audience, but will be challenging for less-experienced readers. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers. --Lawrence Nees, University of Delaware
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
