Allen Frantzen

Allen J. Frantzen (born 1947)^[1] is an American medievalist with a specialization in Old English literature. Since retiring from Loyola University Chicago, he has been an emeritus professor.

Education and career

Frantzen grew up in rural Iowa and earned a degree in English from Loras College^[2] and a PhD from the University of Virginia with a dissertation on the literature of penance in the Anglo-Saxon period.^[3] He was a faculty member at Loyola University Chicago from 1978 until his retirement in 2014,^[1] when he was named an emeritus professor. While there he headed the graduate programs in English from 1984 to 1988 and in 1992 founded the Loyola Community Literacy Center, which is open to the community as well as to students at the university.^[4]

Publications

Frantzen has published introductory works intended for students, such as King Alfred (1986)^[5] and 'Troilus and Criseyde': The Poem and the Frame (1993) on Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde.^[6] He also co-edited The Work of Work. Servitude, Slavery, and Labor in Medieval England (1994) with Douglas Moffat.^[7][8]

His first book was on the subject-matter of his dissertation, The Literature of Penance in Anglo-Saxon England (1983);^[9][10] he returned to the Anglo-Saxon penitential literature in Before the Closet: Same-Sex Love from 'Beowulf' to 'Angels in America' (1998), in which, himself a gay man,^[1] he argues that contrary to John Boswell's argument, same-sex relations were not tolerated more by the Church before the Norman Conquest, but rather the relationships were not "closeted"; he takes what he calls a "legitimist" rather than a "liberationist" view of the textual evidence.^[11][12][13] The book has been described as "groundbreaking".^[1]

Frantzen has also published critiques of the field of Old English studies: Desire for Origins: New Language, Old English, and Teaching the Tradition (1990), a study of the history of the field, and Speaking Two Languages: Traditional Disciplines and Contemporary Theory in Medieval Studies (1991).^[14] The former, in which Frantzen argues that Anglo-Saxon studies are increasingly regarded as hidebound because of the insular approach within the field, attracted much notice. Fred C. Robinson wrote that it "should be read by all medievalists who care about their profession."^[15] In 1994 Frantzen was the keynote speaker at a conference at the University of California, Berkeley that was published as Anglo-Saxonism and the Construction of Social Identity (1997).^[16]

In Bloody Good: Chivalry, Sacrifice, and the Great War (2004) he studied the mythology of chivalry and of imitatio Christi as motivations for participants in World War I.^[17][18]

After his retirement, Frantzen wrote a blog post dated September 2015 titled "How to Fight Your Way Out of the Feminist Fog" in which he aligned himself with the men's rights movement against what he argued were the anti-man demands of feminists; this provoked disapproving responses from certain medievalists after it was publicized in early 2016.^{[1][19][20][21][22]}

Honors

• Guggenheim Fellowship, 1993^[23]
• Loyola University Faculty Member of the Year 1991, Master Teacher (College of Arts & Sciences) 1997–98, Faculty Scholar 2000.^[4]
• Teaching Excellence Award of the Medieval Academy of America, 2013^[24]
• Opera Omnia: A Festspiel for Allen J. Frantzen: celebratory conference organized by former students, 2015.^[4][25]

References

1. Rio Fernandes (January 22, 2016). "Prominent Medieval Scholar's Blog on 'Feminist Fog' Sparks an Uproar". The Chronicle of Higher Education.
2. "About Allen Frantzen". Allen Frantzen.com. Retrieved December 14, 2016.
3. Frantzen, Allen J, Department of English, University of Virginia. "The keys of heaven: penance, penitentials, and the literature of early medieval England". University of Virginia Library. Retrieved December 14, 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
4. "English Tutoring at the Literacy Center". Loyola University Chicago. Retrieved December 14, 2016.
5. Daniel Donoghue (April 1989). "Review:King Alfred by Allen J. Frantzen". Speculum. 64 (2): 425–27. doi:10.2307/2851970. JSTOR 2851970.
6. James R. Sprouse (November 1994). "Review: 'Troilus and Criseyde': The Poem and the Frame by Allen J. Frantzen". South Atlantic Review. 59 (4): 124–26. doi:10.2307/3201367. JSTOR 3201367.
7. David A. E. Pelteret (November 1996). "Review: The Work of Work. Servitude, Slavery, and Labor in Medieval England by Allen J. Frantzen, Douglas Moffat". The English Historical Review. 111 (444): 1235–36. JSTOR 575870.
8. John S. Moore (Summer 1996). "Review: The Work of Work: Servitude, Slavery, and Labor in Medieval England by Allen J. Frantzen, Douglas Moffat". Albion. 28 (2): 281–82. doi:10.2307/4052464. JSTOR 4052464.
9. Paul E. Szarmach (April 1988). "Review: The Literature of Penance in Anglo-Saxon England by Allen J. Frantzen". Speculum. 63 (2): 392–94. doi:10.2307/2853247. JSTOR 2853247.
10. Catharine A. Regan (October 1984). "Review: The Literature of Penance in Anglo-Saxon England by Allen J. Frantzen". The Journal of English and Germanic Philology. 83 (4): 553–57. JSTOR 27709401.
11. Susan M. Kim (August 2002). "Review: Before the Closet: Same-Sex Love from 'Beowulf' to 'Angels in America' by Allen J. Frantzen". Modern Philology. 100 (1): 60–63. doi:10.1086/493150. JSTOR 1215583.
12. Michael W. Twomey (January 2002). "Review: Before the Closet: Same-Sex Love from 'Beowulf' to 'Angels in America' by Allen J. Frantzen". Speculum. 77 (1): 174–76. doi:10.2307/2903822. JSTOR 2903822.
13. Frank Field (February 2000). "Review: Before the Closet. Same-Sex Love from 'Beowulf' to 'Angels in America' by Allen J. Frantzen". The English Historical Review. 115 (460): 266–67. doi:10.1093/ehr/115.460.266-a. JSTOR 579553.
14. Debra Magai Dove (May 1992). "Review: Desire for Origins: New Language, Old English, and Teaching the Tradition by Allen J. Frantzen; Speaking Two Languages: Traditional Disciplines and Contemporary Theory in Medieval Studies by Allen J. Frantzen". South Atlantic Review. 57 (2): 93–95. doi:10.2307/3200220. JSTOR 3200220.
15. Fred C. Robinson (October 1993). "Review: Desire for Origins: New Language, Old English, and Teaching the Tradition. by Allen J. Frantzen". Speculum. 68 (4): 1119–21. doi:10.2307/2865535. JSTOR 2865535.
16. Craig R. Davis (July 2000). "Review: Anglo-Saxonism and the Construction of Social Identity by Allen J. Frantzen, John D. Niles". The Modern Language Review. 95 (3): 790–91. doi:10.2307/3735503. JSTOR 3735503.
17. Jeanne Fox-Friedman (Winter 2004). "Review: Bloody Good: Chivalry, Sacrifice, and the Great War by Allen J. Frantzen". Arthuriana. 14 (4): 86–88. doi:10.1353/art.2004.0067. JSTOR 27870663. S2CID 161942030.
18. John H. Morrow Jr. (September 2005). "Review: Bloody Good: Chivalry, Sacrifice, and the Great War by Allen J. Frantzen". The International History Review. 27 (3): 640–42. JSTOR 40109639.
19. David M. Perry (January 20, 2016). "Grab Your Balls and The Problem with Blind Peer Review". How Did We Get Into This Mess? (blog).
20. Jeffrey J. Cohen (January 16, 2016). "On calling out misogyny". In the Middle (blog).
21. Jennifer C. Edwards, '#Femfog and Fencing: The Risks for AcademicFeminism in Public and Online', Medieval Feminist Forum, 53 (2017), 45–72 (pp. 50–59).
22. Eileen Joy, CFP: DefenestratingFrantzen: A Fistschrift punctum, 2020).
23. "Allen J. Frantzen". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Retrieved December 14, 2016.
24. . Department of English, Loyola University Chicago. Archived from the original on December 14, 2016. Retrieved December 14, 2016.
25. "Opera Omnia: A Festspiel for Allen J. Frantzen". 10 April 2015. Retrieved December 14, 2016.

External links

• Personal website