Medieval Popular Culture

by Aron Gurevich, János M. Bak (Translator), Paul A. Hollingsworth (Translator)

This book attempts to reconstruct the beliefs and perceptions of the "silent majority" of medieval men and women from the writings of clerical authors, aimed at a wide audience. By scrutinizing the lives of saints, miracle stories, descriptions of fantastic travels, penitential literature, catechisms and similar genres, from the fifth to the fifteenth centuries, the author identifies elements of popular culture that found their way into Latin literature through mutual interaction between author and audience. The author thus offers a fresh and original insight into the world of the common man, his everyday habits, beliefs and behavior.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Medieval, Academic

295 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Aron Yakovlevich Gurevich (also spelled Aaron Gurevich Russian: Арон Яковлевич Гуревич; May 12, 1924, Moscow – August 5, 2006, Moscow) was a Russian medievalist historian, working on the European culture of the Middle Ages.

Gurevich's work was informed by Jacques Le Goff and Georges Duby, and he considered himself a member of their Annales School. He was also influenced by ideas of Mikhail Bakhtin, challenging some of them at the same time. Gurevich's work was considered anti-Marxist and met with hostility in the Soviet Union, but enjoyed support abroad among the Annales School, although he was not allowed to travel abroad before Perestroika.

Reviews

[Cat · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was translated in 1988- from the original russian. The approach to "medieval popular culture" will be familiar to readers of foucault as the fashionable "inversion" technique, of focusing on "low" instead of "high". Gurevich's main, and repeated critique of better known midevialiests like Phillipe Aries and Marc Bloch (french midevialists' it should be said) is that they use sources derived from the intelligensia, rather then relying on analysis based on materials available to the common people.

Thus, their assumptions are based on representations made by elites based on the way things are supposed to be, rather then the way they are. Gurevich looks at hagiography (study of saints lives), midevial vision literature and pentitentials (books designed to instruct the peasants). In the end he presents a picture of midevial "culture" or "mentality" that is considerably more complex then the explanations provided by the annalists school at the university of paris. Gurevich is well grounded in both french and german sources- apparently read in the original? I was well aware of all of the french sources, but hadn't heard of ANY of the german authors- what's up with that???

Thought provoking with an excellent bibliography- and short- but written in a surely-awkward within the original- style that gets no easier to read for being translated into english.

[Socrate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Individul Evului Mediu şi istoricul prezentului într-un desen ce însoţeşte Hortus deliciarum (Grădina desfătărilor) a stareţei Herrad von Landsberg (sfârşitul secolului al XII-lea) se găsesc reproduceri ale maicilor mănăstirii ei, Hohenburg, printre ele chiar şi una a stareţei înseşi – în total mai mult de şaizeci. Totuşi, nu mulţimea persoanelor reprezentate e cea care îl surprinde pe privitor, ci identitatea aproape perfectă care uneşte aceste „portrete”: nu numai că postura corporală şi vestimentaţia sunt aproape aceleaşi, dar până şi fizionomiile se aseamănă una cu alta ca două picături de apă şi nici măcar în expresia lor nu se deosebesc aproape deloc; dacă pot fi sesizate totuşi mici diferenţe, acestea sunt de ordin secundar şi nu pot fi atribuite, eventual, strădaniei artistului de a reliefa particularităţile individuale. Până şi stareţa se distinge dintre celelalte doar pentru că este înfăţişată în întregime, în statură completă, şi cu un manuscris mare în mână. Maicile pot fi identificate doar după inscripţiile cu numele lor. Sunt „miresele lui Christos”, fără vârstă, fără individualitate; o dată cu îmbrăcarea rasei monahale au renunţat la eul lor, care s-a preschimbat în supunere faţă de Dumnezeu. Şi totuşi, în ochii lui Herrad (sau ai artistului care le-a înfăţişat), ele n-au devenit prin aceasta câtuşi de puţin o masă amorfă, au rămas individualităţi. Numai că Herrad şi artistul întrezăreau individualitatea fiecărei călugăriţe nu în înfăţişarea exterioară, ci în ceva cu totul diferit.
Fireşte că acest desen reprezintă un caz extrem de tipizare, căci, în acelaşi secol al XH-lea, existau deja portretizări care nu semănau defel leit una cu alta. Cu toate acestea, direcţia dominantă din artă era sublinierea generalului în dauna individualului, iar portretul, în înţelesul de mai târziu al cuvântului, era încă necunoscut epocii. Desenul lui Herrad îl confruntă pe istoric cu o problemă: prin ce era exprimată individualitatea în Evul Mediu, cum se percepea ea pe sine, ce înţelegea societatea prin aceasta şi cum putea fi ea sesizată?

[Kettlehewer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I mostly skimmed this academic book, and not having any previous scholarly knowledge about the medieval period, I found it very educational and well thought-out. The examples Gurevich uses really do help to build his argument/observations about the inherent contradictions in medieval thought.

[Kamil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aron Gurevich delves into a not-so much explored area of historical research, which is the popular culture of medieval times during the 6. -13. century.

He presents many of the cultural items of that age in a comprehensible and simple way, such as the exemples, legends about saints, the birth of purgatory, and the people's perception of the learnings of the church. This gives the reader an unique opportunity to see how it all really went; the autor debunks the myths of a "Christian Medieval Age", showing us that the people had only a shallow perception of the church's teachings, and to get a more firm grip, the catholic church had to ad hoc assimilate and use some of the people's pagan and tribal teachings as their own during these learnings. Interesting gems appear in all areas of the book.

What I liked the most about the book was its comprenhensibility, the author's writing style, bordering on common man's philosophy, and the complexity with which he touches many important topics of the topic as a whole. If you are not afraid of a lengthy book on history, I wholeheartedly recommend it!

[Irina Tomic]

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

[Teofil · Rating 4 out of 5]

O abordare foarte interesantă, în care autorul din fosta URSS valorifică și culturile mai puțin „frecventate” ale Europei, în special cele nordice, pentru a investiga formarea conștiinței individuale în arealul european.

[Marin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Uzbudljiva knjiga o grijesima srednjovjekovnog čovjeka.