Series | Medieval and Modern Philologies
Volume 1 | Review | Modernity of the Middle Ages
Modernity of the Middle Ages
open access | peer reviewed-
edited by
- Marina Buzzoni - Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia - email orcid profile
- Maria Grazia Cammarota - Università degli Studi di Bergamo, Italia - email orcid profile
- Marusca Francini - Università degli Studi di Pavia, Italia - email
Abstract
The approach to the Middle Ages, more than a millennium long and far from unified and coherent, continues to oscillate between the two opposing images that the Enlightenment and Romanticism have given us. On the one hand, the Middle Ages of religious fanaticism, of superstitions, of the clash between church and state; a dark, barbaric, oppressive Middle Ages. On the other, the Middle Ages of sincere religious devotion, of great artistic expressions, of the affirmation of the freedom of peoples against the tyranny of the Roman Empire; a bright, refined, imaginative Middle Ages. In order to encounter the Middle Ages in a less stereotypical way, we must open ourselves up to the languages of the past, which on close examination reveal unexpected dimensions. If we try to listen to the voices coming to us from that distant time, we can perhaps also better understand the meaning of what the current operations of reusing the Middle Ages – of the various Middle Ages – are trying to tell us, not only about that historical period itself, but also about ourselves, today.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.14277/978-88-97735-31-1 | e-ISBN 978-88-97735-31-1 | ISBN (PRINT) 978-88-97735-30-4 | Published May 1, 2013 | Language it
Copyright © 2013 Marina Buzzoni, Maria Grazia Cammarota, Marusca Francini. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
