Dream vision
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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
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 "
The content of the genre of visions is based on the description of pictures of the
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
apocryphalreligious literature and is close to Church preaching
The peak of the medieval vision genre is considered to be
The deformation of the genre of visions
In the course of evolutionary development, the genre of visions in
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
The heroes of the Old Russian epic are often
dreams.[6]
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
- Augustine of Hippo, Soliloquia
- De consolatione philosophiae
- Dream of Scipio
- Macrobius, Commentary on Cicero's Dream of Scipio
Medieval Latin
- John Gower, Vox Clamantis Book One is an account of the Peasants' Revolt
- Alain de Lille, De planctu naturae
- Brother Marcus, Visio Tnugdali ("The Vision of Tundale")
French
- Roman de la rose, also translated into Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer
- Marie de France, The Legend of the Purgatory of St. Patrick
- Le Chemin de Povreté et de Richesse, a 14th-century dream poem incorporated in Le Ménagier de Paris
- Le Chemin de long estude, by Christine de Pizan
Irish
- See also aisling, Modern literature in Irish.
- Geoffrey Keating
- Aogán Ó Rathaille
- Eoghan Rua Ó Súilleabháin
- Seán "Clárach" Mac Domhnaill
- Brian Merriman
- Pádraig Phiarais Cúndún
- Seán Gaelach Ó Súilleabháin
Italian
- The Divine Comedydepicts the conventions of dream-vision literature, though Dante specifically says that his vision is not a dream
Old English
- Bede, Vision of Drycthelm
- Anonymous, Christwas crucified.
Middle English
- Scipio the Elderhimself.
- William Langland, Piers Plowman or Visio Willelmi de Petro Ploughman (William's Vision of Piers Plowman) is an apocalyptic Middle English allegorical narrative attributed to William Langland, one of the great works of English literature. It is written in unrhymed alliterative verse divided into sections called passus (Latin for "step").
- Sir John Clanvowe, The Cuckoo and the Nightingale
- Anonymous, Parlement of the Thre [sic] Ages
- Anonymous, Wynnere and Wastoure
- Pearl Poet, Pearl
- The Vision of Tundale, a translation from the Latin Visio Tnugdali.
- John Lydgate, The Temple of Glass
Modern English
- John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress
- Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Triumph of Life
- William Morris, News from Nowhere, A Dream of John Ball
- C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorcetells of a dream vision in which the author joins a group of the damned on a vacation bus trip to heaven, where they encounter various figures from their own pasts who try to entreat them to come and join the company of those in heaven.
- The Eagles, "Hotel California"
- Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" (1865 ) is in the form of a dream vision.
- James Joyce's (Irish novelist) "Finnegans Wake" (1939) consists of an immense cosmic dream.
Old Russian
- The Tale of Igor's Campaign
- Praying of Daniel the Immured
- About the whole thing
- Depth Book
- And some Old Russian letopises.
Scottish Gaelic
- See also Aisling, Scottish Gaelic literature
- Alasdair mac Mhaighstir Alasdair
- Dòmhnall Ruadh Chorùna
Ukrainian
- See also Ukrainian literature
- Taras Shevchenko's The Dream
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.)
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References
- ^ Ananya Jahanara Kabir, Paradise, Death and Doomsday in Anglo-Saxon Literature (Cambridge University Press, 2001, 2004), p. 78.
- ^ 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.
- ^ ISBN 5-02-016791-6
- ^ Shor 1939.
- ^ Shor, Rosalia (1939). Vision [Literary Encyclopedia] (in Russian). Moscow. p. 447.
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ 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
- ^ 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.