Happiness in the middle ages? Hartmann von Aue and Marie de France

Classen, Albrecht

doi:10.1007/bf02572863

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 6 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…There she explores a variety of options regarding identity, personal happiness, love and marriage, sexuality, friendship, virtues, vices, passion, and also lust. 17 Similarly, perhaps less appreciated and yet equally powerful, in the Fables, we confront a large corpus of relevant texts where the poet explores human conditions, but not so much on the inside (spirituality), but on the outside in the social and political context, very much in conformity with the genre itself. 18 Literary critics have always known that their criticism of social shortcomings could easily face severe opposition, especially by the powerful and mighty.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Smart Marie De France Knew the Ways of this World – Medieval Advice Literature (Fables) and Social Criticism in its Relevance for us Today

2019

International Journal of History and Cultural Studies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Since antiquity, a huge body of short texts has been produced in which deep wisdom of timeless value has been formulated. The succinct, poignant formulation of an idea has commonly achieved its purpose very effectively in many different life situations, and this in all cultures. Those texts, whether proverbs, aphorisms, epigrams, riddles, memorial verses, and the like are still with us today, but in recent years the interest in and familiarity with them seems to have faded, at least in the public. Only a few decades ago, it was very normal for students or other individuals to have memorized many of such short statements and to know how to apply them to their own lives. Many of them were regarded so highly that they populated the back pages of ordinary kitchen calendars and other publications for easy and public consumption. In foreign language classes, it was standard practice to work with some of those short texts, but today they often seem to be too conservative, naive, meaningless, and hence to be virtually irrelevant because of their putatively overly traditional, perhaps outdated values. 1 In fact, they seem to be belittled today and hardly enjoy the respect they really deserve.Post-modern audiences appear fairly ignorant or even negatively inclined regarding the didactic messages contained in such texts. The reasons for such a disinterest or even explicit rejection of those short verbal messages containing fundamental and timeless lessons are many, but they are mostly indefinite and emotional, maybe because those spiffy statements sound too old-fashioned, too conservative, too trite, or even irrelevant for the modern, technology-driven world. However, considering that all proverbs, for instance, address universal truths pertaining to ethics, morality, and character, nothing should prevent us from studying them carefully, even today. 2 Throughout the centuries, scholars have collected vast volumes of proverbs and handed them on to posterity. Research continues the investigation of those genres, a research field called paremiology, but it might be questionable whether fables, for instance, which are closely related, really continue to enjoy the status and respect as in previous centuries. 3 One simple example that might explain where the tensions rest, would be the German proverb, -Morgenstund hat Gold im Mund‖ (The morning hour has gold in its mouth). The content is clear and not hard to understand; the early riser will get the work done well and quickly (in the Anglophone world: The early bird catches the worm). This pertains, especially, to the world of farmers or gardeners, but the current younger generations seem less and less interested in the field of agriculture and rather pursue an urban lifestyle. The entire culture of drinking coffee signals clearly that getting up early in the morning is considered as uncomfortable and unpleasant; people need their caffeine to get into gear. However, in the professional world, including that of farmers, work needs to be done, and the earlier one begins with it, th...

show abstract

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Smart Marie De France Knew the Ways of this World – Medieval Advice Literature (Fables) and Social Criticism in its Relevance for us Today

2019

International Journal of History and Cultural Studies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…all belong to the body, and not to the mind. We can abstract this complex issue even further and talk only about "happiness", which requires much in spiritual and little in material terms, as all great spiritual leaders and intellectuals throughout time have already taught us, whether we think of Jesus or Buddha, of Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, Boethius, Augustine, or Hildegard of Bingen [56][57][58].…”

Section: The Meaning Of the Past For The Present And The Futurementioning

confidence: 99%

The Meaning of Literature and Literature as Meaning—A Productive Challenge of Modern Times from the Middle Ages

Classen

2016

Humanities

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract:The marriage of literature and science might not be possible strictly speaking, but a marriage of humanities with philosophy, psychology, religion, ethics, ecology, and social studies, for instance, might well work, as a close analysis of some medieval narratives will illustrate. This paper intends to demonstrate once again what the humanities could truly mean, insofar as the discussion will not only lay bare textual elements or philological concerns, but it will also indicate how much relevant literature helps us to address crucial questions of religious, ethical, social, moral, and philosophical kinds, building powerful bridges between the past and the present. In order to test this premise even in extreme situations, here a number of medieval texts will be introduced and analyzed as to their timeless message and hence their extremely important function of creating meaning for readers/listeners both from the Middle Ages and today.

show abstract

Happiness Pre-Modern Answers for Questions Today from Boethius to Fortunatus

Classen

2021

Current Research Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Human existence is really dependent on the quest for happiness. Most people rely on contingent aspects of happiness, whereas all philosophers and poets have already taught us that true happiness rests somewhere else. This paper examines recent approaches to this idea of happiness, both in philosophy and in sociology, and related fields, and then turns to the teachings by the late antique philosopher Boethius (in Latin). From there, the article turns to the anonymous German novel Fortunatus (printed in 1509) where some of Boethius’s teachings find direct applications, defining happiness with a reference to wisdom. Past notions of happiness promise to illuminate us today in our search for true happiness beyond contingency.

show abstract

Happiness in the middle ages? Hartmann von Aue and Marie de France

Cited by 3 publications

References 6 publications

Smart Marie De France Knew the Ways of this World – Medieval Advice Literature (Fables) and Social Criticism in its Relevance for us Today

Smart Marie De France Knew the Ways of this World – Medieval Advice Literature (Fables) and Social Criticism in its Relevance for us Today

The Meaning of Literature and Literature as Meaning—A Productive Challenge of Modern Times from the Middle Ages

Happiness Pre-Modern Answers for Questions Today from Boethius to Fortunatus

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About