"Gazing into the void": Apocalypse, Authority and Culture on the Margins of Medieval Society.
- Author/Editor
- Gingell, C. J.
- Title
- "Gazing into the void": Apocalypse, Authority and Culture on the Margins of Medieval Society.
- Published
- Gingell, C. J. "Gazing into the void": Apocalypse, Authority and Culture on the Margins of Medieval Society. Ph.D. Dissertation. The University of Wales College of Cardiff, 2004. Dissertation Abstracts International C70.37. Abstract available via ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global.
- Review
- "The thesis examines ways in which . . . . apocalyptic feeling . . . . was one of the principal ways in which ordinary people responded to the crises of late fourteenth-century Europe, especially in England. The modern apocalyptic tradition is examined in the Introduction, looking at popular culture, such as TV, films and the Internet, whilst Chapter 1 reviews the medieval apocalyptic tradition and its equivalent means of expression – Mystery Plays, sermons, manuscript illustrations and lyrics. Chapter 2 examines 'Piers Plowman' as a text not only explicitly apocalyptic, but also explicitly fourteenth-century, grappling with many contemporary trends and traumas. Chapter 3 takes a similar approach to Gower’s three major works, which have not previously been considered to be especially apocalyptic. The chapter also examines Gower’s use of humour and satire, not just as didactic tools, but as further ways of reacting to crisis. The final two chapters detail the third form of response, that of seeking to take control of a threatening situation. These chapters review diverse activities such as alchemy and witchcraft, and look in more detail at those on the margins of society, often forced there by their lifestyle choices: in times of uncertainty and crisis the majority seeks to banish the unorthodox or unknowable in order to reaffirm its collective identity."
- Date
- 2004
- Gower Subjects
- Backgrounds and General Criticism
Style, Rhetoric, and Versification
Mirour de l'Omme
Vox Clamantis
Confessio Amantis