Preliminary communication
BIBLICAL WOMEN IN CROATIAN MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE LITERATURE
Valnea Delbianco
; Filozofski fakultet, Pula, Hrvatska
Abstract
In this paper, the author delves into the subject of the Biblical women in Croatian medieval and renaissance literature; the theme of the paper is also the position of women in those times and the attitude of the society toward the "weaker gender", which largely determined the choice of the literature heroines of the above mentioned era. The Croatian literature and its social environment did not blindly follow the model of other Western European peoples, which shows clear tendency of two-fold approach to the women, an approach that lasted for many centuries: they were either divinized or satanized. The Croatian medieval and renaissance authors did not choose the Biblical heroines on the base of negative attitude toward women, and the satanization of women was very rare. Most texts from that period are dominated by divinization of women; in such worship of the "weaker gender" by men, the cult of Virgin Mary was extremely widespread, while other heroines were chosen by the principle of exemplariness and impeccability. The approach of Croatian medieval literature, where a woman is mostly a silent martyr which stoically endures all the great temptations, differs from the renaissance approach, where the heroine is respected because she is a courageous woman who changes, or wants to change, the world which surrounds her. Therefore, in the Renaissance, the women are closer to the secular than to the Biblical world. The two-fold approach, which introduced the elements of satanization, came as late as 17th century with the baroque literature. The baroque literature is characterized by a substantial number of literary works which emphasize the woman-sinner, who sometimes carries Biblical name of "Mandaljena", and sometimes is just a nameless "harlot".
Keywords
Biblical heroines; divinization and satanization of the women; medieval and renaissance approach to women
Hrčak ID:
23199
URI
Publication date:
16.12.2006.
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