This thesis presents a new approach to the alterity of medieval texts in a psycho-literary analysis of the modes of consciousness informing one group of those texts, the Middle English religious lyrics. In a bilateral analysis, Part I establishes criteria for evaluating modes of ego and relates these criteria to what is known about medieval culture and mentality with examples from the lyrics; Part II examines textual evidence from these poems for indications of notions of the self and the way the self is experienced. The thesis argues that a major source of medieval alterity lies in the ready access in the Middle Ages to modes of consciousness comparable to that identified by the archetypal psychologist James Hillman as an imaginal ego. The imaging of various aspects of the self is surveyed: body-consciousness, modes of perception, and major self-awareness-enhancing experiences of life-suffering, woundedness, sickness, old age, and death. Hypnotic aspects of the lyrics are found to be particularly significant in maintaining this consciousness. (For complete abstract open document)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/245488 |
| Creators | Sadedin, Ann |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
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