Original scientific paper
Allegory of the otherworldly journeys in medieval literature
Dolores Grmača
orcid.org/0000-0002-6300-0775
; Department of Croatian language and literature, Faculty of humanities and social sciences at the University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
Based on the corpus of eschatological visions affirmed in Croatian medieval literature, the paper studies allegorical elements in the creation of the world beyond topography and allegorical interpretation of the otherworldly journeys. Although the culmination of visionary tradition is Dante’s allegorical journey, the images of otherworldliness previous to it cannot be categorized as an allegorical genre. Since allegory is extremely important at both compositional and hermeneutic level of such texts, it is possible to talk about the allegory of journey. The importance of vision as a literary genre is also reflected in its influence on Christian eschatology, theological discipline and especially on folk spirituality which has kept in great part until today the otherworldliness imaginarium as it was developed in the visionary tradition. Travelling through spaces of otherworldliness is presented like an itinerary: in images of this-worldly journey. All eschatological visions in Croatian Middle Ages have the same structure: journey “ return and they all emphasize the importance of internal transformation, internal reflection of the otherworldly on the this-worldly journey. Although the visions deal with eschatological reality, subjects such as the Second Coming of Jesus Christ (Parousia), the Last Judgement, the resurrection of the body are left out. Visions focus on a man’s personal death and the continuation of life in the world beyond, on the description of the otherworldliness topography as well as on the way of the future being. In contemporary eschatology such anthropocentric approach has been replaced by christological, but the way of safely getting into heaven remained the same: doing good deeds “ salvation in the other world is earned in this one.
Keywords
allegory of journey; medieval visions; the world beyond; purgatory; hell; heaven; otherworldliness topography
Hrčak ID:
174581
URI
Publication date:
3.12.2012.
Visits: 1.806 *