Signs of sorrow: The expression of grief and the representation of mourning in fifteenth century French culture.
Item
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Title
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Signs of sorrow: The expression of grief and the representation of mourning in fifteenth century French culture.
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Identifier
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AAI9630444
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identifier
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9630444
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Creator
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Callahan, Leslie Abend.
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Contributor
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Advisers: Francesca Canade Sautman | Pamela Sheingorn
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Date
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1996
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Literature, Romance | Art History | History, Medieval
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Abstract
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This project is predicated on the assumption that by examining textual, visual and monumental artifacts, and studying the practice of ritual and drama from late medieval France, the contemporary reader can recover traces of an emotion, grief, as it was experienced during the period. Such an assumption--that an "archaeology of emotion" is possible--calls forth a cluster of problematics that remain at the heart of the discipline of Medieval Studies, among them questions of whether we can gain insight into the mentalities of people who are remote from us in time; how to interpret the highly conventionalized cultural artifacts, rituals and performances of such individuals and groups, and finally, what theoretical tools may be used in such an inquiry.;I work within a flexible framework comprised of three categories: "public" or official mourning and commemoration; the "poetic" or subjective expression of grief, and the "performance" of grief. The cultural artifacts examined here include lyric poetry, manuscript illumination, tomb sculpture, chronicle accounts, sculptures of the Pieta and Entombment, and plays of the Passion. Cultural studies, feminist theory, and psycho-biological and anthropological theories of emotion are among the theoretical models used to explore the documents in this study in the semiotics of late medieval grief.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
