Forms of Individuality and Literacy in the Medieval and Early Modern Periods

Forms of Individuality and Literacy in the Medieval and Early Modern Periods
Author: Franz-Josef Arlinghaus
Publisher:
Total Pages: 317
Release: 2015
Genre:
ISBN: 9782503552897

Download Forms of Individuality and Literacy in the Medieval and Early Modern Periods Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Through case studies of a broad variety of medieval and early modern sources, this volume discusses whether the roots of modern notions of individuality can be found in pre-modern Europe. Individuality is one of the central categories of modern society. Can the roots of modern individuality be found in pre-modern times? Or is our way of thinking about ourselves a very recent phenomenon? This book takes a theoretical approach to the problem, derived from Niklas Luhmanns system theory, in which different forms of individuality are linked to different structures of society in modern and pre-modern times. The papers in this volume approach this problem by discussing a broad variety of medieval and early modern sources, including charters and seals, letters, and naming-practices in a late medieval town. Self-representation is also considered, in housebooks and drawings. Textual studies include autobiography in German Humanism, and concepts of individuality and gender in late medieval literary texts

Forms of Individuality and Literacy in the Medieval and Early Modern Periods

Forms of Individuality and Literacy in the Medieval and Early Modern Periods
Author: Franz-Josef Arlinghaus
Publisher: Brepols Publishers
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2015
Genre: Individuality in literature
ISBN: 9782503552200

Download Forms of Individuality and Literacy in the Medieval and Early Modern Periods Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

'Individuality' is one of the central categories of modern society. Can the roots of modern individuality be found in pre-modern times? Or is our way of thinking about ourselves a very recent phenomenon? This book takes a theoretical approach to the problem, derived from Niklas Luhmann's system theory, in which different forms of individuality are linked to different structures of society in modern and pre-modern times. The papers in this volume approach this problem by discussing a broad variety of medieval and early modern sources, including charters and seals, letters, and naming-practices in a late medieval town. Self-representation is also considered, in 'housebooks' and drawings. Textual studies include autobiography in German Humanism, and concepts of individuality and gender in late medieval literary texts.

The Christian Roots of Individualism

The Christian Roots of Individualism
Author: Maureen P. Heath
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 301
Release: 2019-11-28
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 3030300897

Download The Christian Roots of Individualism Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

The modern West has made the focus on individuality, individual freedom, and self-identity central to its self-definition, and these concepts have been crucially shaped by Christianity. This book surveys how the birth of the Christian worldview affected the evolution of individualism in Western culture as a cultural meme. Applying a biological metaphor and Richard Dawkins’ definition of a meme, this work argues the advent of individualism was not a sudden innovation of the Renaissance or the Enlightenment, but a long evolution with characteristic traits. This evolution can be mapped using profiles of individuals in different historical eras who contributed to the modern notion of individualism. Utilizing excerpts from original works from Augustine to Nietzsche, a compelling narrative arises from the slow but steady evolution of the modern self. The central argument is that Christianity, with its characteristic inwardness, was fundamental in the development of a sense of self as it affirmed the importance of the everyday man and everyday life.

Approaches to the Medieval Self

Approaches to the Medieval Self
Author: Stefka G. Eriksen
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 357
Release: 2020-09-21
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 3110664763

Download Approaches to the Medieval Self Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

The main aim of this book is to discuss various modes of studying and defining the medieval self, based on a wide span of sources from medieval Western Scandinavia, c. 800-1500, such as archeological evidence, architecture and art, documents, literature, and runic inscriptions. The book engages with major theoretical discussions within the humanities and social sciences, such as cultural theory, practice theory, and cognitive theory. The authors investigate how the various approaches to the self influence our own scholarly mindsets and horizons, and how they condition what aspects of the medieval self are 'visible' to us. Utilizing this insight, we aim to propose a more syncretic approach towards the medieval self, not in order to substitute excellent models already in existence, but in order to foreground the flexibility and the complementarity of the current theories, when these are seen in relationship to each other. The self and how it relates to its surrounding world and history is a main concern of humanities and social sciences. Focusing on the theoretical and methodological flexibility when approaching the medieval self has the potential to raise our awareness of our own position and agency in various social spaces today.

What Nature Does Not Teach

What Nature Does Not Teach
Author: Juanita Feros Ruys
Publisher: Brepols Publishers
Total Pages: 552
Release: 2008
Genre: History
ISBN:

Download What Nature Does Not Teach Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

This interdisciplinary volume takes as its subject the multi-faceted genre of didactic literature (the literature of instruction) which constituted the cornerstone of literary enterprise and social control in medieval and early modern Europe. Following an Introduction that raises questions of didactic meaning, intent, audience, and social effect, nineteen chapters deal with the construction of the individual didactic voice and persona in the premodern period, didactic literature for children, women as the creators, objects, and consumers of didactic literature, the influence of advice literature on adult literacy, piety, and heresy, and the revision of classical didactic forms and motifs in the early modern period. Attention is paid throughout to the continuities of didactic literature across the medieval and early modern periods-its intertextuality, reliance on tradition, and self-renewal-and to questions of gender, authority, control, and the socially constructed nature of advice. Contributors particularly explore the intersection of advice literature with real lives, considering the social impact of both individual texts and the didactic genre as a whole. The volume deals with a wide variety of texts from the early Middle Ages to the eighteenth century, written in languages from Latin through the European vernaculars to Byzantine Greek and Russian, offering a comprehensive overview of this pervasive and influential genre.

Classical Rhetoric in the Middle Ages

Classical Rhetoric in the Middle Ages
Author: John O. Ward
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 724
Release: 2018-12-24
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9004368078

Download Classical Rhetoric in the Middle Ages Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Classical Rhetoric in the Middle Ages: The Medieval Rhetors and Their Art 400-1300, with Manuscript Survey to 1500 CE is a completely updated version of John Ward’s much-used doctoral thesis of 1972, and is the definitive treatment of this fundamental aspect of medieval and rhetorical culture.

The Routledge Companion to Cultural History in the Western World

The Routledge Companion to Cultural History in the Western World
Author: Alessandro Arcangeli
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 569
Release: 2020-09-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1000097919

Download The Routledge Companion to Cultural History in the Western World Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

The Routledge Companion to Cultural History in the Western World is a comprehensive examination of recent discussions and findings in the exciting field of cultural history. A synthesis of how the new cultural history has transformed the study of history, the volume is divided into three parts – medieval, early modern and modern – that emphasize the way people made sense of the world around them. Contributions cover such themes as material cultures of living, mobility and transport, cultural exchange and transfer, power and conflict, emotion and communication, and the history of the senses. The focus is on the Western world, but the notion of the West is a flexible one. In bringing together 36 authors from 15 countries, the book takes a wide geographical coverage, devoting continuous attention to global connections and the emerging trend of globalization. It builds a panorama of the transformation of Western identities, and the critical ramifications of that evolution from the Middle Ages to the twenty-first century, that offers the reader a wide-ranging illustration of the potentials of cultural history as a way of studying the past in a variety of times, spaces and aspects of human experience. Engaging with historiographical debate and covering a vast range of themes, periods and places, The Routledge Companion to Cultural History in the Western World is the ideal resource for cultural history students and scholars to understand and advance this dynamic field.

Early Modern Privacy

Early Modern Privacy
Author: Michaël Green
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 464
Release: 2021-12-13
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9004153071

Download Early Modern Privacy Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

An examination of instances, experiences, and spaces of early modern privacy. It opens new avenues to understanding the structures and dynamics that shape early modern societies through examination of a wide array of sources, discourses, practices, and spatial programmes.

The Diary

The Diary
Author: Batsheva Ben-Amos
Publisher:
Total Pages: 492
Release: 2020
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0253046963

Download The Diary Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

The diary as a genre is found in all literate societies, and these autobiographical accounts are written by persons of all ranks and positions. The Diary offers an exploration of the form in its social, historical, and cultural-literary contexts with its own distinctive features, poetics, and rhetoric. The contributors to this volume examine theories and interpretations relating to writing and studying diaries; the formation of diary canons in the United Kingdom, France, United States, and Brazil; and the ways in which handwritten diaries are transformed through processes of publication and digitization. The authors also explore different diary formats including the travel diary, the private diary, conflict diaries written during periods of crisis, and the diaries of the digital era, such as blogs. The Diary offers a comprehensive overview of the genre, synthesizing decades of interdisciplinary study to enrich our understanding of, research about, and engagement with the diary as literary form and historical documentation.

Religious Individualisation

Religious Individualisation
Author: Martin Fuchs
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 1058
Release: 2019-12-16
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 3110580934

Download Religious Individualisation Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

This volume brings together key findings of the long-term research project ‘Religious Individualisation in Historical Perspective’ (Max Weber Centre for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies, Erfurt University). Combining a wide range of disciplinary approaches, methods and theories, the volume assembles over 50 contributions that explore and compare processes of religious individualisation in different religious environments and historical periods, in particular in Asia, the Mediterranean, and Europe from antiquity to the recent past. Contrary to standard theories of modernisation, which tend to regard religious individualisation as a specifically modern or early modern as well as an essentially Western or Christian phenomenon, the chapters reveal processes of religious individualisation in a large variety of non-Western and pre-modern scenarios. Furthermore, the volume challenges prevalent views that regard religions primarily as collective phenomena and provides nuanced perspectives on the appropriation of religious agency, the pluralisation of religious options, dynamics of de-traditionalisation and privatisation, the development of elaborated notions of the self, the facilitation of religious deviance, and on the notion of dividuality.