IMC 2008: Sessions
Session 619: Nature and Divine Order, II: The Visual Transformation of Nature in Religious Plays and Other Religious Text Genres
Tuesday 8 July 2008, 11.15-12.45
| Sponsor: | Oswald von Wolkenstein-Gesellschaft |
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| Organiser: | Cora Dietl, Institut für Germanistik, Justus-Liebig-Universität, Gießen |
| Moderator/Chair: | Cora Dietl, Institut für Germanistik, Justus-Liebig-Universität, Gießen |
| Paper 619-a | The Transformation of Landscape in Late Medieval Shepherds' Plays (Language: English) Index terms: Language and Literature - Comparative, Language and Literature - Middle English, Lay Piety, Performance Arts - Drama |
| Paper 619-b | 'Go grese thi shepe under the toute': Nature, Man, and the 'Natural Man' in Mactacio Abel (Language: English) Index terms: Language and Literature - Middle English, Lay Piety, Performance Arts - Dance |
| Paper 619-c | The Animal Kingdom in Medieval Polish Literature (Language: English) Index terms: Language and Literature - Slavic, Lay Piety, Religious Life |
| Abstract | While in didactic literature nature reflects the overall order according to which the world and human life are organised, religious plays visually represent the divine order as it is replicated in nature. In the given context, 'nature' implies both the landscape, the animals living in it, and the relationship between man and the natural world. The first two papers of this session examine the transformation of nature as a result of human action and in the context of the history of salvation. They also analyse how the acting figures themselves undergo a transformation when encountering the divine. The third paper examines the symbolic function of animals as visual representatives of divine order in different genres of religious Polish literature, as compared to some secular poems. |