{"word_count": 330, "character_count": 2569}
Through case studies of a broad variety of medieval and early modern sources, this volume discusses whether the roots of modern notions of individuality can be found in pre-modern Europe.‘Individuality’ is one of the central categories of modern society. Can the roots of modern individuality be found in pre-modern times? Or is our way of thinking about ourselves a very recent phenomenon? This book takes a theoretical approach to the problem, derived from Niklas Luhmann’s system theory, in which different forms of individuality are linked to different structures of society in modern and pre-modern times.The papers in this volume approach this problem by discussing a broad variety of medieval and early modern sources, including charters and seals, letters, and naming-practices in a late medieval town. Self-representation is also considered, in ‘housebooks’ and drawings. Textual studies include autobiography in German Humanism, and concepts of individuality and gender in late medieval literary texts.Table of ContentsPreface—FRANZ-JOSEF ARLINGHAUSConceptualising Pre-Modern and Modern Individuality: Some Theoretical Considerations—FRANZ-JOSEF ARLINGHAUSBodily Practices as an Expression of ‘Individuality’ in the Letters of Liselotte von der Pfalz (1652-1722—MAREIKE BÖTHLoci of Medieval Individuality: A Methodological Inquiry—BRIGITTE M. BEDOS-REZAKHetero-Reference and Heterology: Autobiographical Writing, Individuality, and Gender on the Threshold of the Modern Period—EVA KORMANNExpressing Your Self in Later Medieval England: Individuality and Social Differentiation—DAVID GARY SHAW‘Individuality’, Relationships, Words about Onesself: Autobiographical Writing as a Resource (Fifteenth-Sixteenth Centuries) –Konrad Pellikan’s Autobiography—GABRIELE JANCKEIndividuality and Narration: The Cases of Ulrich von Liechtenstein, Helene Kottanerin, and Johannes Tichtel—MATTHIAS MEYERKinship as Catalyst of Individuation in Sixteenth-Century German House Books: A Reconsideration of Niklas Luhmann’s Approach to Pre-Modern Individuality—GREGOR ROHMANNMe, Myself, and My Name: Naming and Identity in the Late Middle Ages—CHRISTOF ROLKERBody and Time: The Representation of the Naked and Clothed Self in Religious, Social, and Cosmological Orders (Matthäus Schwarz, -)—HEIKE SCHLIEDialogue Situations: Considerations on Self-Identification in the Middle Ages—SABINE SCHMOLINSKYForms of Individuality and Literacy in the Medieval and Early Modern PeriodsF.-J. Arlinghaus (ed.)VIII+317 p., 2 b/w ill. + 13 colour ill., 156 x 234 mm, 2015ISBN: 978-2-503-55220-0