Old age in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance : interdisciplinary approaches to a neglected topic / edited by Albrecht Classen.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Classen, Albrecht.

Series:

Fundamentals of medieval and early modern culture ; 2

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Old age in literature.

Literature, Medieval--History and criticism.

Literature, Medieval.

European literature--Renaissance, 1450-1600--History and criticism.

European literature.

Old age--Europe--History.

Old age.

Physical Description:

vii, 575 p. : ill.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berlin ; New York : Walter de Gruyter, c2007.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

After an extensive introduction that takes stock of the relevant research literature on Old Age in the Middle Ages and the early modern age, the contributors discuss the phenomenon of old age in many different fields of late antique, medieval, and early modern literature, history, and art history. Both Beowulf and the Hildebrandslied, both Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival and Titurel, both the figure of Merlin and the trans-European tradition of Perceval/Peredur/Parzival, then the figure of the vetula in a variety of medieval French, English, and Spanish texts, and of the Old Man in The Stricker's Daniel, both the treatment of old age in Langland's Piers the Plowman and in Jean Gerson's sermons are dealt with. Other aspects involve late-antique epistolary literature, early modern French farce in light of Disability Studies, the social role of old, impotent men in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Netherlandish paintings, and the scientific discourse of old age and health since the 1500's. The discourse of Old Age proves to have been of central importance throughout the ages, so the critical examination of the issues involved sheds intriguing light on the cultural history from late antiquity to the seventeenth century.

Contents:

Front matter

Table of Contents

Old Age in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance: Also an Introduction / Classen, Albrecht

Age and Style in Late Antique Epistolography: Symmachus' Polemics against the Rhetoric of the Old / Sogno, Cristiana

Winter in Heorot: Looking at Anglo-Saxon Perceptions of Age and Kingship through the Character of Hrothgar / Rothauser, Britt C. L.

Old Age and Women in the Carolingian World / Garver, Valerie L.

The Withdrawal of Aged Noblemen into Monastic Communities: Interpreting the Sources from Twelfth-Century Germany / Lyon, Jonathan R.

Medieval Latin Meditations on Old Age: Rhetoric, Autobiography, and Experience / Ruys, Juanita Feros

Old Age in Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival and Titurel / Lazda-Cazers, Rasma

Old Age in the World of The Stricker and Other Middle High German Poets: A Neglected Topic / Classen, Albrecht

Merlin, puer senex par excellence / Berthelot, Anne

Age-Old Words of Wisdom: The Power of the Aged in Grail Literature / Jost, Jean Ε.

Old Age and Medieval Misogyny: The Old Woman / Mieszkowski, Gretchen

De vetula: the Figure of the Old Woman in Medieval French Literature / Pratt, Karen

Celestina: The Power of Old Age / Scarborough, Connie L.

Forty Years of Plague: Attitudes toward Old Age in the Tales of Boccaccio and Chaucer / Sandidge, Marilyn

Jupiter and Saturn: Medieval Ideals of "Elde" / Peters, Harry

Old Age, Narrative Form, and Epistemology in Langland's Piers Plowman: The Possibility of Learning / Pigg, Daniel F.

"L'aage plus fort ennaye": Scienta mortis, Ars moriendi and Jean Gerson's Advice to an Old Man / Taylor, Scott L.

Representations of Aging and Disability in Early Sixteenth-Century French Farce / Gordon, Sarah

The Good, the Bad, and the Elderly: The Representation of Old Age in Netherlandish Prints (ca. 1550-1650) / Janssen, Anouk

Hoorndragers and Hennetasters: The Old Impotent Cuckold as "Other" in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Netherlandish Art / Peacock, Martha

A Portrait of the Artist as an Old Man - with Emphasis on Titian / Bostock, Sophie

The Sulzbach Jubilee: Old Age in Early Modern Europe and America / Coudert, Allison P.

Contributors

Index

List of Illustrations

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9783110925999

3110925990

OCLC:

948656496