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IMC 2015: Sessions

Session 1004: Late Medieval Bohemian Literature: Performance, Poetics, Polemics

Wednesday 8 July 2015, 09.00-10.30

Moderator/Chair:Balázs Nagy, Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest / Eötvös Loránd University
Paper 1004-aBetween Text and Performance: Bohemian Planctus as a Liminal Genre
(Language: English)
Eliška Poláčková, Department of Theatre Studies, Masarykova univerzita, Brno / Centre for Classical Studies, Czech Academy of Sciences, Praha
Index terms: Language and Literature - Latin, Language and Literature - Slavic, Performance Arts - General
Paper 1004-bThe Life and Work of Michael Pragensis: With Special Reference to Dialogus de custodia virginitatis
(Language: English)
Jana Kaderová, Department of Classical Studies, Masarykova univerzita, Brno
Index terms: Language and Literature - Latin, Manuscripts and Palaeography, Sexuality
Paper 1004-cJ. Gałka's Polish Pieśń o Wiklefie (Song on Wyclif) as an Attempt to Politicize Philosophical Realism
(Language: English)
Andrzej Wicher, Zakład Dramatu i Dawnej Literatury Angielskiej, Uniwersytet Łódzki
Index terms: Language and Literature - Slavic, Philosophy, Political Thought, Religious Life
Abstract

Paper -a:
Rather than representing a single generic form, the term planctus covers a group of diverse texts with different pragmatics, connected by the motif of lament over the death of Christ. Several examples of Latin, Old Czech, and German plancti originated in the 14th-century Bohemia, some of them clearly intended for performance (e.g. the Böhmische Marienklage), other composed presumably for (silent) reading. The aim of the present paper is to explore the performative features of the given texts and offer potential contexts in which the texts could be performed.

Paper -b:
My contribution deals with the life and work of Michael of Prague (died in 1401), an important member of the Carthusian Order and the author of three writings De quattuor virtutibus pro eruditione principum, Consolatorium abiecti prioris seu prepositi and Dialogus de custodia virginitatis. Firstly the paper follows the most important periods of Michael's life and doing this it has successfully specified some facts about his fate and career, especially about the years he spent in Prague. Secondly the contribution focuses on Michael's literary work, primarily on his treatise De custodia virginitatis written between 1387 and 1391. The overriding aims of this part are: to describe the manuscript tradition of Michael's writing; to elaborately analyse and interpret the text; and finally to place it within the context of the medieval anti-matrimonial literature.

Paper -c:
The paper deals with the Polish 15th-century echoes of Wycliffite ideas, and in particular with the way Wycliffe's version of Realism is used in J. Gałka's polemical poem to emphasize the need for a radical ecclesiastical reform. Some attention is also paid to the way Wycliffe's ideas were exploited and modified in the context of the Bohemian Hussite movement of which Gałka was a passionate sympathiser. One of the most important aspects of the poem in question is a direct attack on the authority of the Pope, so the question of the rhetoric and rationale of that attack is also examined.