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IMC 2013: Sessions

Session 1314: In Memory of Ulrich Müller: Earthly Pleasures versus Spiritual Pleasures in Medieval Life, Literature, and Poetry

Wednesday 3 July 2013, 16.30-18.00

Sponsor:Oswald von Wolkenstein-Gesellschaft
Organiser:Sieglinde Hartmann, Oswald von Wolkenstein-Gesellschaft, Frankfurt am Main
Moderator/Chair:Sieglinde Hartmann, Oswald von Wolkenstein-Gesellschaft, Frankfurt am Main
Paper 1314-aEarthly Pleasure versus Spiritual Pleasure in the 11th-Century Jodo-Styled Japanese Garden and in the Tale of Genji
(Language: English)
Yuko Tagaya, Graduate School of Humanities, Kanto-Gakuin University, Yokohama
Index terms: Architecture - General, Language and Literature - Other
Paper 1314-bA Clerical Scholar's Joy and Sorrow in the Love Lyrics of the Carmina Burana
(Language: English)
Sabina Tuzzo, Dipartimento dei beni, delle arti e della storia, Università del Salento
Index terms: Language and Literature - Latin, Mentalities
Paper 1314-cSpiritual Pleasures versus Earthly Pleasures in Mechthild of Magdeburg's Flowing Light of the Godhead
(Language: English)
Paola Schulze-Belli, Dipartimento di Scienze dell'Uomo, Università degli studi di Trieste
Index terms: Language and Literature - German, Lay Piety
Abstract

This session is dedicated to the late Ulrich Müller, founder of the Oswald von Wolkenstein-Gesellschaft and the Society of Intercultural German Studies. In this session speakers aim to open up new perspectives for an intercultural dialogue about seemingly universal contradictions between earthly and spiritual pleasures. The first paper will demonstrate the Japanese way how to reconcile the opposition. The example of paper 2, in contrast, will present European clerics and their futile attempt to enjoy earthly love pleasures without pain. The 3rd paper will explore whether the reconciliation of sensual and spiritual pleasure in courtly epics should be reconsidered as a purely gendered compatibility. In the last paper, the analysis will focus on the problem in which way Mechthild's sensual metaphors of love are linked to her spiritual experineces of 'purely' divine love pleasures.