Personification as Devotional Strategy in Middle Low German Literature

在我的DPhil论文中，我将争辩说，中世纪宗教文学中对时间的拟人化标志着一种独特的诗学形式。对特定时间点的寻址、描述和互动--将其人格化--允许与神性的相互交流，这向说话者传达了代理，并具有很强的文学潜力，这还有待系统地研究。我打算在一个更大的北德祈祷书语料库中分析这些诗学，通过考察拟人化的文体手段。这将未被研究的中世纪晚期中低德语宗教文学置于一条传承的路线上，可以追溯到犹太文化中通过拉丁和中高德语文学的新娘神秘主义迎接安息日的犹太文化。通过系统地分析中低音德语祈祷词中时间拟人化的用法和功能，我的论文将描绘一个中心话题--时间在宗教诗学中的作用。为了进行我的研究，有必要考虑体裁祈祷书固有的礼拜形式，将其与更普遍的宗教写作策略联系起来，导致以下问题：1)人格化的使用是否导致与普通礼拜传统的不同？2)宗教人格化的使用是否塑造了一种不同形式的虔诚修辞？3)如果是这样的话，人格化是否塑造了祈祷的个性，并在这样做的过程中向奉献者传达了代理？通过采用这种方法，我的项目被置于诗学、神学和女性信仰的迷人交汇点。我的文学方法通过将文本修辞和视觉修辞结合起来，补充了对中世纪手稿物质性的关注。一段时间以来，学术界一直对中世纪女性虔诚文学的物质方面感兴趣，例如卡罗琳·沃克·拜纳姆(Caroline Walker Bynum)的《不相似的相似之处》(DISSISHIZE SIMIZIATES)(2020)。我的项目通过人格化的视角观察日常事物的诗学，比如祈祷书，从而为这一讨论做出了贡献。虽然中世纪德国文学中的人格化一直是众多分析的主题，但作为一种在德国中世纪祈祷书中体现诗学的方式，人格化还没有得到系统的研究。这一点意义重大，因为我会争辩说，人格化在宗教写作的背景下具有新的意义，即一种将神圣形象化的策略。准确理解“人格化”一词及其所有含义是我的项目的基础。这将构成我的方法论章节的基础，将在我DPhil的第一年完成。此外，我将在第一阶段完成一篇文学评论。然后，我将建立北德祈祷书语料库，从北德修道院的祈祷书开始，这些祈祷书由波隆斯基基金会数字化项目“来自德语国家的手稿”数字化，该项目是博德莱恩图书馆和赫尔佐格·奥古斯特图书馆和赫尔佐格·奥古斯特·沃尔芬巴特尔合作的项目。第二年将用于对扩展的语料库进行文本分析，第三年也是最后一年为组合工作和视角以及潜在的修改提供了足够的时间。总之，我提出的DPhil项目旨在揭示通过使用时间的拟人化而产生的更大的北德祈祷书语料库中诗学的独特形式。通过这样做，我希望通过强调人格化在中世纪虔诚文学中的这一特定功能，以及加深我们对中世纪祈祷书的理解，为全面的人格化学术贡献新的见解。

In my DPhil dissertation, I will argue that the personification of time in medieval religious literature marks a distinct form of poetics. Addressing, describing, and interacting with a specific point in time - personifying it - allows an intercommunication with the divine which conveys agency to the speaker and has strong literary potential, that has yet to be studied systematically. I intend to analyse these poetics in a larger corpus of Northern German prayer books, by looking at the stylistic means of personification.This places the under-studied late medieval Middle Low German devotional literature in a line of heritage going back to greeting the Sabbath day as bride in Jewish culture via the bridal mysticism of Latin and Middle High German literature. By systematically analysing the usage and function of personifications of time within the Middle Low German prayers, my dissertation will chart a central topic - the function of time in religious poetics. For conducting my research, it is essential to consider the liturgical form that is inherent to the genre prayer book, linking it back to a more universal religious writing strategy, leading to the following questions: 1) Does the use of personification lead to a difference to common liturgical traditions?2) Does the use of religious personification shape a different form of devotional rhetoric? 3) If so, does the personification shape the individuality of the prayer and in doing so convey agency to the devotee? By taking this approach, my project is placed at a fascinating intersection of poetics, theology and female devotion. My literary approach complements the focus on the materiality of medieval manuscripts by linking textual and visual rhetoric. The material side of medieval devotional literature by women has been of interest to scholarship for some time, e.g. Caroline Walker Bynum's 'Dissimilar similitudes' (2020). My project contributes to this discussion by looking at the poetics of everyday objects, like the prayer books, through the lens of personification. While 'personification' in medieval German literature has been the subject of numerous analyses, personification as a way of manifesting poetics in German medieval devotional works i.e. prayer books has yet to be studied systematically. This is significant, because I would argue, that personification takes on a new significance in the context of religious writing, namely a strategy of visualisation of the sacred.A precise understanding of the term 'personification' and all its implications is fundamental to my project. This will form the foundation of my methodology chapter, to be completed in the first year of my DPhil. Additionally, I will complete a literary review during this first period. I will then establish the corpus of Northern German prayer books, starting with the prayer books from North German convents digitised by the Polonsky Foundation Digitization Project 'Manuscripts from German-Speaking Lands', a collaboration between the Bodleian Libraries and the Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbuttel. The second year will be used for textual analysis of the extended corpus, with the third and final year providing enough time for the combinational work and perspectives as well as potential revisions.In summary, my proposed DPhil project aims to unveil the distinct form of poetics in a larger corpus of Northern German prayer books, generated by the use of personifications of time. In doing so, I hope to contribute new insights to the overall scholarship for 'personification', by highlighting this specific function of personification in medieval devotional literature, as well as furthering our understanding of medieval prayer books.