Rewriting the "ars moriendi"
The manuals on ars moriendi ("art of dying") were a literary and religious legacy inherited from the late european Middle Ages; a legacy that underwent numerous transformations in reformed England. The liminarity of the situation described in these handbooks allowed for vivid verbal intera...
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2015 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona |
| Repositorio: | Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB |
| Idioma: | inglés |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:ddd.uab.cat:146276 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://ddd.uab.cat/record/146276 https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.5565/rev/medievalia.370 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Ars moriendi Reforma Shakespeare Reformation |
| Sumario: | The manuals on ars moriendi ("art of dying") were a literary and religious legacy inherited from the late european Middle Ages; a legacy that underwent numerous transformations in reformed England. The liminarity of the situation described in these handbooks allowed for vivid verbal interactions between the dying person and his/her attendants: in these imagined last moments, the sick-room was far from being a space of intimacy, but appeared crowded by the presence of demons and angels, as well as by the family and friends of the dying person. A social community was thus established around the death-bed, in which the roles of priest, friends and family were always well defined; in the context of the English Reformation, these roles were essentially preserved, even as they were being visibly simplified. The forms of preparation for death that are represented, envisioned or enforced in Shakespeare's Measure for Measure and Othello are related in various ways to this cultural tradition and to its English assimilation, insofar as they register a pointed emphasis on the state of the self in its final moments. Both plays show a deep concern with the way in which selfhood is defined on the threshold of death, but also with the functions of those who stand as witnesses to it. |
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