Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index


  • Record Number: 6476
  • Author(s)/Creator(s): Moulinier , Laurence.
  • Contributor(s):
  • Title: Quand le malin fait de l'esprit. Le rire au Moyen Age vu depuis l'hagiographie [discusses cases from the "vitae" of Hildegard and Saint Bernard in which demons make a mockery of the saints' attempts to exorcism them; the author also explores the negative aspects of laughter in the writings of Bernard and Hildegard].
  • Source: Annales : Histoire, Sciences Sociales 52, 3 (mai-juin 1997): Pages 457 - 475.
  • Description:
  • Article Type: Journal Article
  • Subject (See Also): Bernard of Clairvaux, Theologian, Saint Exorcism Gottfried, Monk of Disibodenberg, and Theodoricus, Monk of Echternach- Vita Sanctae Hildegardis Hagiography Healers and Healing Hildegard of Bingen, Abbess of Rupertsberg Latin Literature Laughter Medicine
  • Award Note:
  • Geographic Area: France;Germany
  • Century: 12
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  • Table:
  • Abstract: As a passion of the soul expressing itself loudly through the body, laughter was generally held in great suspicion by the medieval Church, especially in monastic life, where it was considered as the enemy of silence and seriousness. Comical elements in edifying texts, telling of the life of an abbot and an abbess in the perspective of their canonizations, are all the more surprising. This study intends to analyze the funtion of such episodes in hagiographic narrative (on the basis of two twelfth-century "Vitae," on Bernard de Clairvaux and Hildegard of Bingen) and the mechanism and scope of a certain type of laughter in the Middle Ages. [Reproduced by permission of Annales Histoire Sciences Sociales].
  • Related Resources:
  • Author's Affiliation: Université de Poitiers
  • Conference Info: - , -
  • Year of Publication: 1997.
  • Language: French
  • ISSN/ISBN: 03952649