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Selections from this widely varied original mystical treatise offer
insight into the lives of C13 female religious in northern Europe.
Here is one of the great surprises of German medieval literature.
Compiled between c.1250 and c.1282, it is an extraordinary piece of
imaginative writing. It integrates visions, auditions, dialogues,
prayers, hymns, lyrical love poems, letters, allegories and
parables, and draws creatively on features from hagiography, the
disputation, the treatise, and magic spells, as the author
documents her relationship with God and with her contemporaries.
Selectionsfrom the text are presented here in translation with
introduction and notes. Dr Elizabeth A. Andersen teaches in the
School of Modern Languages, Newcastle University.
Mechthild of Magdeburg's singular book Das Flieende Licht der
Gottheit ('The Flowing Light of the Godhead') must be accounted one
of the most significant texts in German that we have from the
thirteenth century. As a piece of first-rate imaginative writing in
the vernacular it is a highly rewarding text for those interested
in medieval literature and women's writing. It is also of
considerable interest to historians and theologians as a document
of female spirtuality. This introduction to Mechthild's
extraordinary account of her revelations and of her relationship
with God and with her contemporaries makes Mechthild's book more
accessible to the English speaker. It takes as its central focus
the multi-voiced nature of Mechthild's writings, suggesting ways of
reading her work through an analysis of key voices in the text: (i)
the social-historical voice of Mechthild as beguine and nun (ii)
the authorial voice (iii) the voice of the mystic and prophet with
particular reference to the influence of the Psalter and the Song
of Songs (iv) the temporal voice of the visionary at the
intersection of Mechthild's personal story with the master story of
Christian salvation.
Papers on women and religion in the middle ages, drawn from
archive, manuscipt and early printed sources. Taking a variety of
critical approaches, the papers in Women, the Book and the
Godlyanalyse the subject of women and religion, illustrating
clearly the wealth of previously untapped material on this topic,
whether in archive, manuscript or early printed source. The volume
examines writing by women, writing which excludes women, and
writing which ignores them, as well as women readers, women
patrons, and women who were read to. Archaeology, canon and civil
law, and trial depositions are all represented. The common
determinants of marital and social status are, of course, explored,
but so also are the problems of women and language, women's various
roles as creators, recipients, and objects, and women's positions
on the sliding scale between the orthodox, the reforming, and the
heterodox churches. The essays thus represent something of the
variety and range of work being done on medieval women today.
Contributors: ALCUIN BLAMIRES, JACQUELINE MURRAY, WYBREN SCHEEPSMA,
ANNEM. DUTTON, ROSALYNN VOADEN, GRACE JANTZEN, ELIZABETH A.
ANDERSEN, THOMAS LUONGO, BENEDICTA WARD, GOPA ROY, GEORGES WHALEN,
CATHERINE INNES-PARKER, HELENPHILLIPS, SHANNON McSHEFFREY, PETER
BILLER
New essays on the first flowering of German literature, in the High
Middle Ages and especially during the period 1180-1230. The High
Middle Ages, and particularly the period from 1180 to 1230, saw the
beginnings of a vibrant literary culture in the German vernacular.
While significant literary achievements in German had already been
made in earlier centuries, they were a somewhat precarious
vernacular extension of Christian Latin culture. But the vernacular
literary culture of the High Middle Ages was an integral part of
broader cultural developments in which the unquestioned validity of
traditional authoritative models began to lose its hold. A secular
culture began to emerge in which positive value began to be
attached to the -- however transitory -- allegiances, pleasures,
and loves of life. In new essays dealing with the most significant
literary genres (the heroic epics, the romances, the love lyrics,
and political poetry) and with broader political, social, and
cultural issues (control of aggression, territorialization), this
third volume of the Camden House History of German Literature
demonstrates how the emergence of a vernacular literary culture in
Germany was an important part of a broader cultural transformation
in which medieval people began to redefine themselves, their
relationships to one another, and the position of humanity in the
scheme of things. Contributors: Albrecht Classen, Nicola McLelland,
Rodney Fisher, Neil Thomas, Marion Gibbs and Sidney Johnson,
Rudiger Krohn, Will Hasty, Nigel Harris, Susann Samples, Sara Poor,
Michael Resler, Rudiger Brandt, Elizabeth A. Andersen, Ulrich
Muller and Franz Viktor Spechtler, Ruth Weichselbaumer, W. H.
Jackson, Charles Bowlus. Will Hasty is Professor of German Studies
and co-founder and co-director of the Center for Medieval and Early
Modern Studies at the University of Florida.
Mechthild of Magdeburg's singular book Das Flieende Licht der
Gottheit ('The Flowing Light of the Godhead') must be accounted one
of the most significant texts in German that we have from the
thirteenth century. As a piece of first-rate imaginative writing in
the vernacular it is a highly rewarding text for those interested
in medieval literature and women's writing. It is also of
considerable interest to historians and theologians as a document
of female spirtuality. This introduction to Mechthild's
extraordinary account of her revelations and of her relationship
with God and with her contemporaries makes Mechthild's book more
accessible to the English speaker. It takes as its central focus
the multi-voiced nature of Mechthild's writings, suggesting ways of
reading her work through an analysis of key voices in the text: (i)
the social-historical voice of Mechthild as beguine and nun (ii)
the authorial voice (iii) the voice of the mystic and prophet with
particular reference to the influence of the Psalter and the Song
of Songs (iv) the temporal voice of the visionary at the
intersection of Mechthild's personal story with the master story of
Christian salvation.
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