Medieval Laments of the Virgin Mary: Text, Music, Performance, and Genre Liminality (Early Social Performance)

Laments of the Virgin Mary represent a devotional genre that offered its clerical and lay audiences of the High and Late Middle Ages a deeply inspiring, yet at the same time ambiguous, religious experience. Through the deeply emotional and markedly animated representation of the Passion, seen as if through the eyes of the mother of God, audiences and performers were not only reminded of the redemptive power of the Cross, but encouraged to experience Christ’s sacrifice in a more personal and intimate manner. In the pious practice of imitatio Mariae , believers mirrored the sorrow of the mother through their own bodies in order to develop a kind of visceral empathy towards, and hence a deeper understanding of, the divine. COVER 1 Contents 5 List of Illustrations 6 Preface 7 Introduction. The Suffering of the Virgin Mary as an Inner Drama 9 Chapter One. Marian Lament and Medieval Piety 37 Chapter Two. Genre, Mediality and Aesthetics 83 Chapter Three. Modes of Performance 141 Chapter Four. Bohemian Laments: Feeling Like a Woman, Thinking Like a Man. Or Not? 177 Appendix: Bohemian Marian Laments — Excerpts 207 Index 243