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IMC 2013: Sessions

Session 1716: European Perspectives on the Pleasure and Performance of Religious Reading

Thursday 4 July 2013, 14.15-15.45

Sponsor:Rijksuniversiteit Groningen / University of Aberystwyth / University of Nottingham
Organiser:Elisabeth Salter, Department of English Literature & Creative Writing, Aberystwyth University
Moderator/Chair:Elisabeth Salter, Department of English Literature & Creative Writing, Aberystwyth University
Paper 1716-aThe Intellectual and Sensual Pleasures of Devotion to the Holy Name in Late Medieval England
(Language: English)
Rob Lutton, Department of History, University of Nottingham
Index terms: Anthropology, Language and Literature - Middle English, Religious Life
Paper 1716-bReading as Acting: The Perforative Experience of Middle Dutch Illustrated Passion Texts and Lives of Christ
(Language: English)
Bart Ramakers, Oudere Nederlandse Letterkunde, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
Index terms: Language and Literature - Dutch, Religious Life
Paper 1716-cUncovering the Presence: Performative Religious Reading in Late Medieval Italy
(Language: English)
Sabrina Corbellini, Oudere Nederlandse Letterkunde Rijksuniversiteit Groningen Oude Kijk in 't Jatstraat 26 9712 EK GRONINGEN
Index terms: Language and Literature - Italian, Lay Piety, Religious Life
Abstract

This session takes a European perspective on religious culture to explore devotional practice and the performance of religion. The papers work with three different national perspectives and as a whole the session therefore makes a Europe-wide consideration of religious culture. Rob Lutton’s paper explores the rise in popularity of the cult of the Holy Name of Jesus in England from the 14th to the 16th centuries by examining the appeal of particular doctrinal ideas and the attraction of certain types of devotional practice. Bart Ramakers’ paper looks specifically at the Middle Dutch tradition of illustrated Passion and Lives of Christ texts examining particularly the ways that these texts illicit a performative experience of religious devotion. Sabrina Corbellini’s paper examines in particular the Italian tradition of religious reading focusing on lay readers' approaches to texts and on the process of transformation from reading to meditation, prayer, and mystical experience.