Empire, Shame, and Medieval Text Editing: The Case of <i>Beowulf</i> Line 1382a

This essay applies the concept of postimperial melancholia, taken from work Paul Gilroy, to describe affective undercurrents medieval text editing in latter half twentieth century and first decades twenty-first through an example Beowulf. The discussion is focalized emendations line 1382a, where ambiguous series minims leads different editorial choices Klaeber's three editions poem, his second supplement third edition, fourth edition produced by R. D. Fulk, Robert Bjork, John Niles, Kevin Kiernan's Electronic emendation proposed Klaeber imbricated shameful history Old English studies project constructing legendary origins for whiteness. Kiernan editors each reject reading without addressing this history, focusing attention instead on technological methodological interventions that produce other readings which are then represented alongside Klaeber's. result representative how closed nonrecuperative temporality melancholia manifest principal development postwar more generally, abandonment notion scholarly constitute progress toward a better representation text, favor imagining them as expansions spatialized critical field around nodes dissent. concludes best way forward recognize its causes, so it might contribute productive futures.