I said I wanted to review a podcast, and so I am.
I'd like to set the general mood by strongly recommending anyone with an interest in Old English to get the Oxford Medieval Literature Podcast. The heart of it the series are a series of Lectures which look to the cultural contest of Old English Literature. So far it has touched on, frankly, most Old English Literature. It is clearly designed to accompany the more purely linguistic/philological study of Old English. As someone who is, casually, trying to learn OE, this is both entertaining and enlightening. Stuart Lee is clearly an excellent lecturer. I wish some of mine were more like he. The lectures do sound great fun.
Unfortunately there are times when I feel I am missing out by not taking the course. The lectures do make reference to printed handouts, other lectures and seminars, and make extensive use of multimedia. This does not come out in an audio podcast. It is clearly aimed at those taking the course, maybe to help them revise. So one cannot blame its designers for hot making full materials available. This does not stop me rueing the omission. The quality of the podcast is not brilliant, again this is inevitable for something recorded as part of a real, functional undergraduate lecture series.
In conclusion: Listen to it, put up with the various issues around it.
13 November, 2007
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2 reckons:
I agree with everything you noted about the podcast. I just started listening to it with the past Spring's semester. I was pleasently surprised to see an Old English workshop dealing with the grammar aspects of learning the language and anticipate with baited breath the alluded to second workshop. I may just have to break down and pick up a reference or two that Dr. Lee mentions as being useful.
I'm a huge fan of these podcasts - I mostly agree with you BUT you can actually access much of the other media you mention by logging on to Weblearn, as Stuart Lee mentions in the lecture. You don't need to be registered with Oxford (or any other uni) to get to the Oxford material on Weblearn.
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