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<p>The monsters of <i>Beowulf</i> are sites of political boundary-formation at which Early English society constitutes itself via violent exclusion. Synthesizing Carl Schmitt’s friend-enemy distinction with Julia Kristeva’s concept of abjection, this article demonstrates how each monster embodies the transgression of specific sociopolitical nomoi: Grendel perverts the reciprocal bonds of martial society, his mother usurps masculine sovereignty, and the dragon negates entirely the gift-economy structuring premodern Germanic life. The progressive distancing of these creatures—from the disturbing proximity of the Grendelkin to the dragon’s absolute alterity—creates a taxonomy of political judgments through which cultural anxieties crystallize into concrete friend-enemy distinctions. The article concludes that <i>Beowulf</i> does not simply reflect Early English values but actively participates in constructing political subjectivity, functioning as a technology through which audiences learn to recognize and expel that which threatens the boundaries of their world.</p>

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The concept of the political and abjection in Beowulf

  • 期刊论文

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  • 发表日期：

    2026年6月3日

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  • Willow Groundwater-Schuldt

摘要

The monsters of Beowulf are sites of political boundary-formation at which Early English society constitutes itself via violent exclusion. Synthesizing Carl Schmitt’s friend-enemy distinction with Julia Kristeva’s concept of abjection, this article demonstrates how each monster embodies the transgression of specific sociopolitical nomoi: Grendel perverts the reciprocal bonds of martial society, his mother usurps masculine sovereignty, and the dragon negates entirely the gift-economy structuring premodern Germanic life. The progressive distancing of these creatures—from the disturbing proximity of the Grendelkin to the dragon’s absolute alterity—creates a taxonomy of political judgments through which cultural anxieties crystallize into concrete friend-enemy distinctions. The article concludes that Beowulf does not simply reflect Early English values but actively participates in constructing political subjectivity, functioning as a technology through which audiences learn to recognize and expel that which threatens the boundaries of their world.