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Document Details : Title: Gesprek vanuit het vagevuur Subtitle: Hoe Lijsbeth Sijmoens na haren doot haer openbaerde Margrieten van Leeuwe en het genre van de laatmiddeleeuwse geestdialoog Author(s): FRAETERS, Veerle , COENEN, Mathijs , SCHEPERS, Kees Journal: Ons Geestelijk Erf Volume: 93 Issue: 3-4 Date: 2023 Pages: 312-351 DOI: 10.2143/OGE.93.3.3293334 Abstract : With the rise of purgatorial devotion from the late twelfth century onwards, the literary motif of ghosts grew exponentially. Jean Claude Schmidt, in his monograph Les Revenants (1994), refers to a veritable ‘invasion of revenants’ in late medieval exemplar literature. Within the corpus of exempla on visitations of the dead, a subgenre can be discerned which is characterized by its unusual length and dialogical discourse. As to the field of Middle Dutch literature studies, such spectral dialogues have thus far remained entirely under the radar. This article provides an edition and study of a hitherto unknown Middle Dutch dialogue between two laywomen, the spirit of the deceased Liesbeth Simons and her friend Margriet, dated 1374 and preserved in a fifteenth-century miscellany from Brabant. A comparison with better studied Latin and vernacular representatives of the genre demonstrates that this Middle Dutch dialogue attributes a high level of agency to laypersons, while significantly downplaying the role of the clergy in spectral communication and purgatorial devotional practices. This finding aligns with earlier research on fourteenth-century lay spirituality in the Southern Low Countries. |
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