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Translating Gawain Bibliography: Ecocriticism

Gawain evolving drafts once crop
Notes and drafts for Simon Armitage's translation of 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight' show how his working practices evolved as he worked on the poem.
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Introduction to resource, written by Simon Armitage
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Gawain evolving drafts once crop
Description of the evolving drafts in Simon Armitage's translation of Gawain
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BC/MS20c/Armitage/1/21/1 notebook p1
Drafts for first section of Gawain from Gawain notebook, page one.
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BC/MS20c/Armitage/1/21/1 notebook p2
Drafts for first section of Gawain from Gawain notebook, pages two and three.
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BC/MS20c/Armitage/1/21/1 notebook p4
Drafts for first section of Gawain from Gawain notebook, pages four and five.
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Gawain first section typed draft from Early Notes file BC/MS20c/Armitage/1/21/1
Description of first typed up draft of first stanza of 'Gawain'.
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Gawain first section early notes from BC/MS 20c/Armitage/1/21/1
Description of annotated printout of first stanza of Gawain.
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Gawain first section, draft #1 from BC/MS20c/Armitage/1/21/1
Description of first typescript draft of first stanza of Gawain
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Gawain first section typed draft #2 from BC/MS20c/Armitage/1/21/1
Description of second typed up draft for first stanza in 'Gawain'
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Gawain first section typed draft #3 from BC/MS20c/Armitage/1/21/1
Third typed draft of first stanza of 'Gawain'.
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Gawain first section typed draft #4 from BC/MS20c/Armitage/1/21/1
Fourth typed up draft of first stanza of 'Gawain'.
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Gawain Lines in detail once
Description of development of first two lines of 'Gawain'.
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Gawain Evolving drafts Now crop
Description of drafts for lines 691-739.
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Gawain Evolving drafts Now crop
Description notebook drafts for lines 691 - 739, Gawain.
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Gawain line 691 section early notes from BC/MS20c/Armitage/1/21/1 (1of2)
Typescript early notes for lines 691 - 739, Gawain.
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Gawain line 691 section typed draft #1 from BC/MS20c/Armitage/1/21/1 (1of2)
First typed draft for lines 691 - 739, Gawain.
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Gawain line 691 section typed draft #2 from BC/MS20c/Armitage/1/21/1 (1of2)
Second typescript draft of lines 691 - 739, Gawain.
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Gawain line 691 section typed draft #4 from BC/MS20c/Armitage/1/21/1 (1of2)
Third typed draft of lines 691 - 739, Gawain.
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BC/MS20c/Armitage/1/21/1 notebook p200
Notes on the introduction to Gawain, back of Gawain notebook.
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BC/MS20c/Armitage/1/21/1 notebook p199
Notes on introduction to Gawain, back of Gawain notebook.
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BC/MS20c/Armitage/1/21/1 notebook p198
Notes for introduction to Gawain, back of Gawain notebook.
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Research resources for Simon Armitage's 'Gawain'
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Extended bibliography 1
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Resources for studying Armitage and Ecocriticism
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Extended Gawain Bibliography
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Place has always been a key aspect of Simon Armitage's work, from the travel writing of Moon Country (Faber, 1996) to poetry intimately born from, and connected to, Armitage's home town of Marsden in West Yorkshire. Armitage draws on the physical aspects of places but he also focuses intently on their sound, drawing particularly on the speech patterns, dialect and the aural flavours of his own home region.

Ecocriticism explores the interaction between the physical world and the environments constructed in literary texts and others forms of art. In recent years ecocritical studies have begun to engage with earlier literature, building an understanding of human artistic engagement with the nonhuman over time. The draft material relating to Armitage's Gawain translation provides further insight into how language and the physical world can interact in a literary text, and the way in which their interaction can merge the past with the present.

The draft material relating to Armitage's Gawain translation provides fertile ground for producing new avenues for ecocritical study. For example, Armitage's various translations of the Middle English word 'wodwos' indicates that this is a key word in his process of translation. Armitage's decision to retain the Middle English 'wodwos' provides a nod to Ted Hughes's collection 'Wodwo', connecting his own poetry with that of another prominent West-Yorkshire literary figure. Through this word 'wodwos' Armitage also connects his translation to the medieval past, by both the direct retention of the Middle English language, and by invoking the physical aspects of the environment(s) associated with wodwos in medieval cultural and literary traditions.

The following bibliography details a selection of useful texts introducing ecocriticism, ecocritical studies relating to the late medieval, and work examining Armitage's construction of place within his poetry: