Dreaming in the Middle Ages

Stephen Kruger considers previously neglected material and arrives at a new understanding of this literary genre, and of medieval attitudes to dreaming in general.

Steven F. Kruger (Author)

9780521019958, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 15 September 2005

268 pages
23 x 15.5 x 1.7 cm, 0.429 kg

This wide-ranging study examines the role of the dream in medieval culture with reference to philosophical, legal and theological writings as well as literary and autobiographical works. Stephen Kruger studies the development of theories of dreaming, from the Neoplatonic and patristic writers to late medieval re-interpretations, and shows how these theories relate to autobiographical accounts and to more popular treatments of dreaming. He considers previously neglected material including one important dream vision by Nicole Oresme, and arrives at a new understanding of this literary genre, and of medieval attitudes to dreaming in general.

Acknowledgments
List of abbreviations
Introduction: modern and medieval dreams
1. Dreambooks and their audiences
2. The doubleness and middleness of dreams
3. The patristic dream
4. From the fourth to the twelfth century
5. Aristotle and the late-medieval dream
6. Dreams and fiction
7. Dreams and life
Notes
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB]