Dream vision

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Boethius in prison

A dream vision or visio is a literary device in which a dream or vision is recounted as having revealed knowledge or a truth that is not available to the dreamer or visionary in a normal waking state. While dreams occur frequently throughout the history of literature, visionary literature as a genre began to flourish suddenly, and is especially characteristic in

early medieval Europe.[1] In both its ancient and medieval form, the dream vision is often felt to be of divine origin. The genre reemerged in the era of Romanticism, when dreams were regarded as creative gateways to imaginative possibilities beyond rational calculation.[2]

This genre typically follows a structure whereby a narrator recounts their experience of falling asleep, dreaming, and waking, with the story often an

, and other literatures.

Visions in medieval European literature

In the book "Medieval Latin visions", Russian philologist Boris Yarkho explores the genre of dream visions, defining it in terms of form and content. To the formal aspects of the genre, the researcher refers, first, the didacticism of the genre of visions itself, which should reveal some truths to the reader; secondly, the presence of the image of a "

dreams
.

The content of the genre of visions is based on the description of pictures of the

ghosts and phenomena of otherworldly forces, as well as eschatology
. In addition, medieval visions can also be filled with topical content that is adjacent to the "eternal", that is, the afterlife, the otherworldly: socio-political contexts can penetrate into the visions, etc.

Yarkho pays attention to the internal structure of visions, distinguishing two types — "one-vertex" visions and "multi-vertex" (eschatological) visions. The structure of the second type of vision can be "archaic", "classical", or " complexly systematized».[3]

On the Genesis of medieval visions, Rosalia Shor writes in the Literary encyclopedia (1929-1939):

Until the

apocryphal
religious literature and is close to Church preaching

The peak of the medieval vision genre is considered to be

Dante's "Divine Comedy", which can be called a detailed vision, based on its narrative and compositional features.[4]

The deformation of the genre of visions

In the course of evolutionary development, the genre of visions in

pamphlets
on topical circumstances. As R. O. Shor notes,

since the Tenth century, the form and content of visions have provoked protest, often from the declassified layers of the clergy themselves (poor

goliard schoolboys). All this results in periodic visions. On the other hand, the form of visions is taken over by courtly chivalrous poetry in folk languages: visions here acquire a new content, becoming a frame of love-didactic allegory — such as, for example, "Fabliau dou dieu d'amour" (the Story of the God of love), " Venus la déesse d'amors" (Venus — the goddess of love) and finally-the encyclopedia of courtly love-the famous "Roman de la Rose" of Guillaume de Lorris.[5]

Visions in Old Russian literature

The genre of visions was one of the typical genres of Old Russian literature, in addition, its individual elements could penetrate into the structure of other genres of Old Russian works. For example, Nikolai Prokofiev discovered the features of the genre of visions in stories, walks, lives, signs, and many other sources.[6]

The composition of the traditional Old Russian vision is as follows: the plot begins with a prayer that precedes psychophysiological states, which are accompanied by visions. Then the hero sees otherworldly forces, which, showing the visionary a "revelation", solve some question. The fear of the clairvoyant is described, after which the meaning of the "revelation" itself is revealed. In conclusion, these same forces call on the visionary to preach what he has seen.

The nature of the images in the Old Russian visions is twofold: they can be both characters of

dreams, very popular in ancient times.[6]

The heroes of the Old Russian epic are often

Some researchers conclude that the genre of visions gradually disappears from literature after the Peter the Great era. Russian writer Alexander Pigin, who in his book "Visions of the Other World in Russian Handwritten books" cites a whole body of texts that indicate that the genre of visions in the Russian handwritten tradition does not die in the XIX—XX centuries, and also draws attention to the lack of knowledge of the genre.[7] Defining the subject of the Old Russian visions, he speaks of "small eschatology", that is, the doctrine of the posthumous fate of the human soul, and of "big eschatology" - the doctrine of the end of the world:

The subject of the visions is "small" (or "private") eschatology, since all the interest in them is focused on the posthumous fate of the individual.[7]

Pigin points out that visions as a genre have their roots in archaic animistic beliefs, and ideas about the "other world" are found in all peoples.

Authors and works

Latin

Ancient Roman

Cicero

Medieval Latin

French

Guillaume de Lorris

Irish

Italian

  • The Divine Comedy
    depicts the conventions of dream-vision literature, though Dante specifically says that his vision is not a dream

Old English

  • Bede, Vision of Drycthelm
  • Anonymous,
    Christ
    was crucified.

Middle English

Geoffrey Chaucer

Modern English

Old Russian

Scottish Gaelic

Ukrainian

Welsh

  • Anonymous, The Dream of Rhonabwy, possibly a satire on the medieval dream vision
  • Anonymous,
    The Dream of Macsen Wledig

Bibliography

  • Boris Yarkho (1989). "Средневековые латинские видения" [Восток-Запад: Исследования, переводы, публикации] (in Russian). Moscow.
    ISBN 5-02-016791-6.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )

References

  1. ^ Ananya Jahanara Kabir, Paradise, Death and Doomsday in Anglo-Saxon Literature (Cambridge University Press, 2001, 2004), p. 78.
  2. ^ Christine Kenyon, Jones, "Dreams and Dreaming," in Encyclopedia of the Romantic Era, 1760-1850 (Taylor & Francis, 2004), vol. 1, pp. 293–294; Douglas B. Wilson, The Romantic Dream: Wordsworth and the Poetics of the Unconscious (University of Nebraska Press, 1993), p. 11.
  3. ^
  4. ^ Shor 1939.
  5. ^ Shor, Rosalia (1939). Vision [Literary Encyclopedia] (in Russian). Moscow. p. 447.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  6. ^ a b c Nikolai Prokofiev. Vision as a genre in Ancient Russian literature / / Uchenye zapiski MSPI im. V. I. Lenin. - M., 1964. - Vol. 231: Voprosy stila khudozhestvennoy literatury. - p. 37-38
  7. ^ a b Alexander Pigin. Visions of the Other world in Russian handwritten books. - St. Petersburg, 2006. - p. 3-21. А. В. Пигин. Видения потустороннего мира в русской рукописной книжности. СПб.: Дмитрий Буланин, 2006.