Spätmittelalterliche Mönche und Nonnen im Spiegel satirischer Texte
Project lead: Dr. Kai Hering
In the European Middle Ages there was often a considerable discrepancy between the idea of monastic life as an earthly anticipation of paradise and the everyday reality of monastic existence. Since the way of life of monks and nuns was supposed to be characterised by the highest virtues, signs of a 'decline in morals' in monasteries gave rise to fierce criticism, mockery and ridicule. Satires were a preferred literary means of criticising grievances, also in the monastic sphere. Despite the widespread distribution of satirical writings about religious, their specific contents, target groups and possible modes of operation have hardly been the subject of in-depth analysis so far.
This is where the project, which is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), comes in by systematically examining negative-critical evaluations of monastic life in the medium of satirical writings. The 14th and 15th centuries offer an extraordinarily interesting and rewarding field of observation for the study: due to the growing density of monastic satires as well as the fact that in the late Middle Ages, as is well known, it was mainly the older, pre-Mendicant orders and congregations that found themselves in a crisis situation. Not least in view of the unbroken radiance of the Mendicant orders, the question of the usefulness and raison d'être of traditional religiousness arose with particular severity in this epoch. Special attention is therefore paid to the satirically presented attacks on communities from the monastic, eremitic and canonical spectrum of vita religiosa. The analysis of Latin satires is at the centre of the project work, whereby German-language satires are also included in a comparative way as examples.
Under the guiding question of how the authors of satirical texts criticised the religiousness of their time, the study examines in detail which communities or institutions were the target of the verbal attacks, which grievances were specifically criticised and how these misdemeanours were presented. The aim of the analyses is to work out decidedly critical ways of perceiving religious life in the mirror of satire and to relate these to the reform discourses that were virulent in the late Middle Ages. With this approach, the research project seeks to make a significant contribution to the study of the medieval vita religiosa.
Contact
Kai Hering, Dr.:
Phone: +49 (0) 351 4793 4183
Email: kai.hering(at)tu-dresden.de