Past convictions : the penance of Louis the Pious and the decline of the Carolingians / Courtney M. Booker.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Booker, Courtney M.

Series:

Middle Ages series.

The Middle Ages series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Louis I, Emperor, 778-840--Historiography.

Louis.

Louis I, Emperor, 778-840.

Kings and rulers.

France--History--To 987.

France.

France--Kings and rulers--Biography.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (431 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, c2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

How do people, in both the past and the present, think about moments of social and political crisis, and how do they respond to them? What are the interpretive codes by which troubling events are read and given meaning, and what part do these codes play in suggesting specific strategies for coping with the world? In Past Convictions Courtney Booker attempts to answer these questions by examining the controversial divestiture and public penance of Charlemagne's son, the Emperor Louis the Pious, in 833.Historians have customarily viewed the event as marking the beginning of the end of the Carolingian dynasty. Exploring how both contemporaries and subsequent generations thought about Louis's forfeiture of the throne, Booker contends that certain vivid ninth-century narratives reveal a close but ephemeral connection between historiography and the generic conventions of comedy and tragedy. In tracing how writers of later centuries built upon these dramatic Carolingian accounts to tell a larger story of faith, betrayal, political expediency, and decline, he explicates the ways historiography shapes our vision of the past and what we think we know about it, and the ways its interpretive models may fall short.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Introduction

Part I. Remembering

Chapter 1. Telling the Truth About the Field of Lies

Chapter 2. The Shame of the Franks

Chapter 3. Histrionic History, Demanding Drama

Part II. Justifying

Chapter 4. Documenting Duty's Demands

Chapter 5. Forgotten Memories

Part III. Discoursing

Chapter 6. Eloquence in Equity, Fluency in Iniquity

Epilogue: Convictions Past and Present

Appendix

Abbreviations

Notes

Select bibliography

Index

Acknowledgments

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781283899130

1283899132

9780812201383

0812201388

OCLC:

794702345