Personification as Devotional Strategy in Middle Low German Literature

在我的博士论文中，我将论证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。称呼、描述和与特定时间点的互动——将其拟人化——允许与神的交流，向说话者传达能动性，具有强大的文学潜力，这还有待系统研究。我打算在一个更大的德国北部祈祷书语料库中分析这些诗学，通过观察拟人化的风格手段。这将中世纪晚期中低地德语的祈祷文学放在了一条传承线上，这条传承可以追溯到犹太文化中以新娘的身份迎接安息日，这是通过拉丁语和中古高地德语文学的新娘神秘主义来实现的。通过系统地分析中低地德语祈祷中时间拟人化的使用和功能，我的论文将描绘一个中心主题-时间在宗教诗学中的功能。为了进行我的研究，有必要考虑祈祷书这一类型所固有的礼仪形式，并将其与更普遍的宗教写作策略联系起来，从而引出以下问题：1)拟人化的使用是否会导致与普通礼仪传统的差异？2)使用宗教人格化是否塑造了一种不同形式的虔诚修辞？3)如果是这样，拟人化是否塑造了祈祷的个性，并在此过程中向奉献者传达了能动性？通过采用这种方法，我的项目被置于诗学，神学和女性奉献的迷人交叉点。我的文学方法通过将文本和视觉修辞联系起来，补充了对中世纪手稿物质性的关注。一段时间以来，学术界对中世纪女性灵修文学的物质方面一直很感兴趣，例如卡罗琳·沃克·拜纳姆（Caroline Walker Bynum）的《不同的相似性》（Dissimilar similar）（2020）。我的项目通过观察日常物品的诗学，比如祈祷书，通过人格化的镜头，为这个讨论做出了贡献。虽然中世纪德国文学中的“拟人化”一直是众多分析的主题，但拟人化作为德国中世纪祈祷作品（即祈祷书）中体现诗学的一种方式尚未得到系统研究。这是很重要的，因为我认为，人格化在宗教写作的背景下有了新的意义，也就是一种对神圣事物的视觉化策略。准确理解“拟人化”一词及其所有含义对我的项目至关重要。这将构成我的方法论章节的基础，将在我获得博士学位的第一年完成。此外，我将在第一学期完成一篇文学评论。然后，我将建立北德祈祷书的语库，从来自北德修道院的祈祷书开始，这些祈祷书是由波隆斯基基金会数字化项目“来自德语国家的手稿”数字化的，这是博德莱安图书馆和赫尔佐格奥古斯特图书馆之间的合作。第二年将用于扩展语料库的文本分析，第三年和最后一年将为组合工作和观点以及可能的修订提供足够的时间。总之，我提出的哲学博士项目旨在通过使用时间的拟人化，在德国北部祈祷书的更大语料中揭示独特的诗学形式。在此过程中，我希望通过强调拟人化在中世纪灵修文学中的特殊功能，以及进一步加深我们对中世纪祈祷书的理解，为“拟人化”的整体学术贡献新的见解。

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.