Feeling Minne: Selfhood and Embodied Emotion in Mechthild von Magdeburg’s Mystical Devotions
In: Emotions: History, Culture, SocietySearch for other papers by Hannah Victoria in
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Abstract
Minne (love, Middle High German) often appears in thirteenth-century Germanic female mystical texts as an object of devotional affection. In Ein vliessendes lieht der gotheit (The Flowing Light of the Godhead), Mechthild von Magdeburg (1208–1282) frequently portrays her minne as a person, effectively embodying or incarnating the concept of minne through language. In this text, we can consider that minne is an entity in some ways possessed of her own ‘selfhood’ because of her poetic embodiment through language; an embodiment which consequently also allows her to come into contact with other narratively embodied entities. In this essay, I will approach an understanding of the emotion minne – a culturally and linguistically dependent concept – through the feelings – cognitive and somatic concepts – by which she is articulated within the language of the text. I will argue for the linguistic and narrative embodiment of both minne’s selfhood and Mechthild’s selfhood to explore how their narrative interaction creates an understanding of minne by means of the body. I suggest that Mechthild’s minne is a concept which can be experienced, or felt, and understood outside thirteenth-century germanophone culture because of the textual and lexical embodiment that takes place through literary tropes and culturally coded metaphors.
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| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
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Feeling Minne: Selfhood and Embodied Emotion in Mechthild von Magdeburg’s Mystical Devotions
In: Emotions: History, Culture, SocietySearch for other papers by Hannah Victoria in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Abstract
Minne (love, Middle High German) often appears in thirteenth-century Germanic female mystical texts as an object of devotional affection. In Ein vliessendes lieht der gotheit (The Flowing Light of the Godhead), Mechthild von Magdeburg (1208–1282) frequently portrays her minne as a person, effectively embodying or incarnating the concept of minne through language. In this text, we can consider that minne is an entity in some ways possessed of her own ‘selfhood’ because of her poetic embodiment through language; an embodiment which consequently also allows her to come into contact with other narratively embodied entities. In this essay, I will approach an understanding of the emotion minne – a culturally and linguistically dependent concept – through the feelings – cognitive and somatic concepts – by which she is articulated within the language of the text. I will argue for the linguistic and narrative embodiment of both minne’s selfhood and Mechthild’s selfhood to explore how their narrative interaction creates an understanding of minne by means of the body. I suggest that Mechthild’s minne is a concept which can be experienced, or felt, and understood outside thirteenth-century germanophone culture because of the textual and lexical embodiment that takes place through literary tropes and culturally coded metaphors.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 245 | 232 | 71 |
| Full Text Views | 16 | 16 | 1 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 71 | 69 | 2 |