Visions and Voice-Hearing in Medieval and Early Modern Contexts (Palgrave Studies in Literature, Science and Medicine)

This book examines how the experiences of hearing voices and seeing visions were understood within the cultural, literary, and intellectual contexts of the medieval and early modern periods. In the Middle Ages, these experiences were interpreted according to frameworks that could credit visionaries or voice-hearers with spiritual knowledge, and allow them to inhabit social roles that were as much desired as feared. Voice-hearing and visionary experience offered powerful creative possibilities in imaginative literature and were often central to the writing of inner, spiritual lives. Ideas about such experience were taken up and reshaped in response to the cultural shifts of the early modern period. These essays, which consider the period 1100 to 1700, offer diverse new insights into a complex, controversial, and contested category of human experience, exploring literary and spiritual works as illuminated by scientific and medical writings, natural philosophy and theology, and the visual arts. In extending and challenging contemporary bio-medical perspectives through the insights and methodologies of the arts and humanities, the volume offers a timely intervention within the wider project of the medical humanities. __Chapters 2 and 5 are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.__ Praise for Visions and Voice-Hearing in Medieval and Early Modern Contexts 6 Acknowledgements 7 Contents 9 Notes on Contributors 11 List of Figures 15 1 Medieval and Early Modern Visions and Voices: Contexts and Approaches 17 Further Reading 30 2 Behold! The Voices of Angels: Narrative, Audience and Affect in Eadmer of Canterbury’s Breviloquium Vita Sancti Wilfridi 31 The Case for Saints 32 Hearing Dulce Carmen 33 Picturing the Tabernacle 36 Eadmer: a Master in Enargeia 40 References 57 3 Gabriel’s Annunciation and the Problems of Angelic Voice 61 References 75 4 Hearing, Seeing, Smelling, Tasting and Touching the Voice: Gender and Multimodal Visions in the Lives of Thomas of Cantimpré 77 The Visions 80 Simultaneous Multimodal Visions: Two Modalities 85 Multimodal Visions: Three or More Modalities 87 References 104 5 Thinking Fantasies: Visions and Voices in Medieval English Secular Writing 107 Frameworks for Thinking 108 Dreaming into Life 111 Sent to Test 112 Fearful Hauntings 114 Fast Imagining: Chaucerian Voices and Visions 117 References 129 6 Staging Conversion: Preternatural Voices and Visions in the Medieval Drama 133 The Digby Magdalen’s ‘Gost of Goodnesse’ 134 On the Ways of (Stage) Angels 138 Staging Dream Visions 140 ‘Shepherding’ Visions and Voice-Hearing 148 The ‘Fideles Mysteria Loquentes’ 151 References 159 7 Julian of Norwich, the Carrow Psalter and Embodied Cinema 163 Visualising the Invisible, Enlivening the Inanimate 163 The Carrow Psalter as Storyboard 166 Julian’s Embodied Cinema 175 References 187 8 Writing and Reading the Word: Patterns of Divine Speech in Julian of Norwich’s A Revelation of Love 191 Modes of Divine Communication 192 Talking with God 199 The Ineffability of Divine Essence 202 The Homeliness of God Talking 204 Conclusion 208 References 213 9 Sounds Like God: The Elephant in The Book of Margery Kempe 215 References 235 10 Daggers of the Mind: Hallucinations, Mental Fixation and Trauma in Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy and Early Modern Psychology 237 Mental Fixation, Visual Disturbances and Trauma 240 Visual Errors and Hallucinations in Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy and the 1602 Additions 247 Trauma, Memory and Revenge 254 Conclusion 258 References 266 11 ‘Fearful Echoes Thunder in Mine Ears’: Hearing Voices in Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus 271 I: Interiority 276 II: Interpretation/Guidance 282 Staging Audience Response 286 References 294 12 ‘Under the Operation of a Higher and Exalted Mind’: Medicine, Mysticism and Social Reform in Restoration England 297 Introduction 297 Medical Background 298 New Approaches 299 The Medical Roots of Divine Inspiration: John Pordage, Jane Leade, and the Early Philadelphians 301 Edward Hooker and William Boreman 305 Religion, Medicine and Natural Philosophy in an Age of Spiritual Crisis 309 Conclusions 311 References 318 Index 321 Front Matter ....Pages i-xvi Medieval and Early Modern Visions and Voices: Contexts and Approaches (Hilary Powell, Corinne Saunders)....Pages 1-14 Behold! The Voices of Angels: Narrative, Audience and Affect in Eadmer of Canterbury’s Breviloquium Vita Sancti Wilfridi (Hilary Powell)....Pages 15-44 Gabriel’s Annunciation and the Problems of Angelic Voice (Jacqueline Tasioulas)....Pages 45-60 Hearing, Seeing, Smelling, Tasting and Touching the Voice: Gender and Multimodal Visions in the Lives of Thomas of Cantimpré (Christine Cooper-Rompato)....Pages 61-90 Thinking Fantasies: Visions and Voices in Medieval English Secular Writing (Corinne Saunders)....Pages 91-116 Staging Conversion: Preternatural Voices and Visions in the Medieval Drama (Mark Chambers)....Pages 117-146 Julian of Norwich, the Carrow Psalter and Embodied Cinema (Sarah Salih)....Pages 147-174 Writing and Reading the Word: Patterns of Divine Speech in Julian of Norwich’s A Revelation of Love (Darragh Greene)....Pages 175-198 Sounds Like God: The Elephant in The Book of Margery Kempe (Barry Windeatt)....Pages 199-220 Daggers of the Mind: Hallucinations, Mental Fixation and Trauma in Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy and Early Modern Psychology (Lesel Dawson)....Pages 221-254 ‘Fearful Echoes Thunder in Mine Ears’: Hearing Voices in Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus (Laurie Maguire, Aleksandra Thostrup)....Pages 255-280 ‘Under the Operation of a Higher and Exalted Mind’: Medicine, Mysticism and Social Reform in Restoration England (Peter Elmer)....Pages 281-304 Back Matter ....Pages 305-311 "This book examines how the experiences of hearing voices and seeing visions were understood within the cultural, literary, and intellectual contexts of the medieval and early modern periods. In the Middle Ages, these experiences were interpreted according to frameworks that could credit visionaries or voice-hearers with spiritual knowledge, and allow them to inhabit social roles that were as much desired as feared. Voice-hearing and visionary experience offered powerful creative possibilities in imaginative literature and were often central to the writing of inner, spiritual lives. Ideas about such experience were taken up and reshaped in response to the cultural shifts of the early modern period. These essays, which consider the period 1100 to 1700, offer diverse new insights into a complex, controversial and contested category of human experience, exploring literary and spiritual works as illuminated by scientific and medical writings, natural philosophy and theology, and the visual arts. In extending and challenging contemporary bio-medical perspectives through the insights and methodologies of the arts and humanities, the volume offers a timely intervention within the wider project of the medical humanities. Chapters 2 and 5 are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com."-- ProQuest Ebook Central resource page, viewed April 22, 2021 This book examines how the experiences of hearing voices and seeing visions were understood within the cultural, literary, and intellectual contexts of the medieval and early modern periods. In the Middle Ages, these experiences were interpreted according to frameworks that could credit individuals with spiritual knowledge, allowing them to inhabit social roles that were as much desired as feared; such experiences also offered powerful creative possibilities. Ideas about visions and voice-hearing were taken up and reshaped in response to the cultural shifts of the early modern period. These essays, which span the period 1100 to 1700, offer diverse new insights into a complex, controversial, and contested category of human experience, exploring literary and spiritual works as illuminated by scientific and medical writings, natural philosophy and theology, and the visual arts. In extending and challenging contemporary bio-medical perspectives through the insights and methodologies of the arts and humanities, the volume offers a timely intervention within the wider project of the medical humanities--back cover