The Aristocratic Body and the Memory Economy of Church Reform, 900-1300 C.E.
Date
2021
Authors
Advisors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Repository Usage Stats
views
downloads
Abstract
This dissertation examines the “memory economy” of church reform from the late ninth through thirteenth centuries. It argues that monastic communities and aristocratic households of the period used the human body as a touchstone for the discussion of memory as a key stake in the social and political life of the high middle ages. The argument centers around several key sites of analysis: excommunication, burial, bodily wounding and mutilation, and liturgical cursing. Centering the analysis on these sites of cultural activity allows close readings of the complex dialectic which develops around memory. Using memory as the central focus of the study allows insight into the ways in which the semi-literate communities of the secular nobility participated in and drove the course of church reform, rather than functioning as mere sources of converts or sources of gifts. Doing so allows an intervention that shits the field of medieval memory studies away from manuscripts and narratives, and towards a methodology that puts activity and social practice at center stage.
Type
Department
Description
Provenance
Citation
Permalink
Citation
Sapp, Jonathan Taylor (2021). The Aristocratic Body and the Memory Economy of Church Reform, 900-1300 C.E. Dissertation, Duke University. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/23003.
Collections
Except where otherwise noted, student scholarship that was shared on DukeSpace after 2009 is made available to the public under a Creative Commons Attribution / Non-commercial / No derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) license. All rights in student work shared on DukeSpace before 2009 remain with the author and/or their designee, whose permission may be required for reuse.