Medieval Temporalities
The Experience of Time in Medieval Europe
Contributions by Annie Sutherland, Almut Suerbaum, Katharine Sykes, Philippa Byrne, Benjamin Thompson, David Bowe, Manuele Gragnolati, Francesca Southerden, Jonas Hermann, C.M. MacRobert, Racha Kirakosian, Jim Harris Edited by Almut Suerbaum, Annie Sutherland
Publication date:
19 February 2021Length of book:
268 pagesPublisher
D.S.BrewerDimensions:
234x156mmISBN-13: 9781800101609
Essays investigating the question of time, and how it was perceived, both in philosophical/religious terms, and in reality.
How was time experienced in the Middle Ages? What attitudes informed people's awareness of its passing - especially when tensions between eternity and human time shaped perceptions in profound and often unexpected ways? Is it a human universal or culturally specific - or both?
The essays here offer a range of perspectives on and approaches to personal, artistic, literary, ecclesiastical and visionary responses to time during this period. They cover a wide and diverse variety of material, from historical prose to lyrical verse, and from liturgical and visionary writing to textiles and images, both real and imagined, across the literary and devotional cultures of England, Italy, Germany and Russia. From anxieties about misspent time to moments of pure joy in the here and now, from concerns about worldly affairs to experiences of being freed from the trappings of time, the volume demonstrates how medieval cultures and societies engaged with and reflected on their own temporalities.
How was time experienced in the Middle Ages? What attitudes informed people's awareness of its passing - especially when tensions between eternity and human time shaped perceptions in profound and often unexpected ways? Is it a human universal or culturally specific - or both?
The essays here offer a range of perspectives on and approaches to personal, artistic, literary, ecclesiastical and visionary responses to time during this period. They cover a wide and diverse variety of material, from historical prose to lyrical verse, and from liturgical and visionary writing to textiles and images, both real and imagined, across the literary and devotional cultures of England, Italy, Germany and Russia. From anxieties about misspent time to moments of pure joy in the here and now, from concerns about worldly affairs to experiences of being freed from the trappings of time, the volume demonstrates how medieval cultures and societies engaged with and reflected on their own temporalities.