THREAD: An edited compilation of Beowulf is out. Many of you will be using it in your classrooms. There are some good pieces in this ie) @b_a_saltzman, D. Hawdbawnik, @MDockrayMiller, M. Pareles & @MaryKateHurley, et al. But, please don’t overlook some very problematic things 1/https://twitter.com/ericamweaver/status/1210356958424752128 …
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OR an upcoming indigenous scholar
@tandrews156 who is a wealth of knowledge on this subject. This blatant erasure of scholars of color in this text is appalling. Rather than do the right thing, the editors made a conscious decision to 12/26Show this thread -
highlight the lack of diversity in this compilation. This isn’t ‘doing better’ this is continuing the tradition of gatekeeping &racism. One of the essays is written about Charlottesville. Again, written by a white woman. I’m mentioned in a passing footnote about the whiteness 13/
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of the field &the racism within academia but was never approached to participate in this collection. Some of these conversations we are having now would not exist without us PoC in the field. The intellectual work would not exist without us, and yet you will only find us as 14/26
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passing footnotes. Let me say it again. The editors chose to accept the whiteness of their edition and write about how white it is rather than include scholars of color in this conversation on race, sexism and gate-keeping. 15/26
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Another essay racializes Beowulf & Andreas (two characters in Old English poems) in some wtf way. The inflammatory language throughout about darkness & savages of the “mediterranean looking Andreas” reeks of racist language --- something that neither the author nor the editors 16pic.twitter.com/X4RTtrjGi9
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cared to reflect on. This book seems to be written BY white people FOR white people. This field is so appallingly racist and scholars are continuing to excuse their whiteness& whitewashing w/ passing notes to say they left scholars of color out while plagiarizing! What the fuck!
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Speaking of other marginalized groups, this edition has a couple of queer authors but the author of a piece on Beowulf &queerness is straight cis-gendered &is not an expert in queer theory. This author trivializes queerness. I will let my queer colleagues like
@erik_kaars 18/26Show this thread -
and others respond to this. How this handling of queerness (or the lack thereof in Beowulf) passed the editors hands is concerning. There is a reference in the introduction about
#femfog 2016. If you don’t know what that’s about, it’s about a senior white male scholar 19/26Show this thread -
Allen Frantzen (now retired) who became an MRA member and wrote a bunch of racist, sexist, homophobic shit on his blog (his own sexuality did not shield him from his blatant homophobic rants). Upon reflection people started to realize how these beliefs were not new in 20/26
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his retirement and how his work reflected a general racist, homophobic, sexist gatekeeping in our field. Google or check
#femfog if you want to know more. Anyway, one of the authors had written extensively about Frantzen &showed drafts of their piece to a number of colleagues. 21Show this thread -
I was one of those who read that piece. The editors removed every negative reference to Frantzen but chose to keep names of scholars in who are terrorizing our field with their sexual predatory behavior &bullying. This is not boundary pushing work. 22/26
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As much as this book tries to address some major issues in our field, it is safe, it is gate-keeping, it is racist. It is easier to ask for forgiveness than it's to get permission. I guess white scholars would rather steal our work (as they did w/ @adam_miya, use our ideas 23/
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as they did with mine,
@dorothyk98 and not even acknowledge our non-PoC colleague@erik_kaars who has steadfastly fought for a more responsible use of the term Anglo-Saxon. These things are inexcusable. Some of these articles are so overly offensive I don't know how they 24/26Show this thread -
passed through the review process. Read this work with a critical eye. Teach it by acknowledging the problems that are weaved throughout the book. Like I said, this book was written by white people for white people. By and large it is offensive & not addressing 25/26
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the issues in our field with a modicum of seriousness they deserve. We need to do better. We have to be honest about how books like this that purposefully continue whiteness in the field, gatekeep & glorify marginalization also perpetuate exclusion & erode our field. 26/26
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End of conversation
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