Blurred Boundaries and Deceptive Dichotomies in Pre-Modern Texts and Images: Culture, Society and Reception

This collection of essays focuses on the way blurred boundaries are represented in pre-modern texts and visual art and how they were received and perceived by their audiences: readers, listeners, and viewers. According to the current understanding that opposing cognitive categories that are so common in modern thinking do not apply to pre-modern mentalities, we argue that individuals in medieval and pre-modern societies did not necessarily consider sacred and secular, male and female, real and fictional, and opposing emotions as absolute dichotomies.
The contributors to the present collection examine a wide range of cultural artifacts - literary texts, wall paintings, sculptures, jewelry, manuscript illustrations, and various objects as to what they reflect regarding the dominant perceptual system - the network of beliefs, worldviews, presumptions, values, and norms of viewing/reading/hearing different from modern epistemology strongly predicated on the binary nature of things and people. The essays suggest that analyzing pre-modern cultural works of art or literature in light of reception theory can lead to a better understanding of how those cultural products influenced individuals and impacted their thoughts and actions.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 3111243567
• ISBN13: 9783111243566
• Release Date: December 2023
• Publisher: de Gruyter
• Length: 265 Pages
• Weight: 1.22 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.1" x 9.2"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary