عنوان

Dreaming of Cockaigne :

0231117027 (cloth : alk. paper)

9780231117029 (cloth : alk. paper)

b425938

Dreaming of Cockaigne :

[Book]

medieval fantasies of the perfect life /

Herman Pleij ; translated by Diane Webb.

New York :

Columbia University Press,

c2001.

ix, 533 p. :

ill. ;

24 cm.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 489-514) and index.

pt. 1. The forfeiture of happiness, the beginning: Paradise lost -- Contours of a book -- The power of literature -- pt. 2. Texts as maps: Rhyming Texts L and B, Prose Text G -- The two rhyming texts on the land of Cockaigne -- Recitation and writing -- Oral structures in writing -- The existing potential -- The prose text of Luilekkerland -- pt. 3. Eating to forget: Eating habits -- Hunger and scarcity -- The topos of hunger -- The intoxicating effect of fasting -- Gorging in self-defense -- Food in motion -- Literary refreshment -- pt. 4. Paradise refurbished: The land of Cockaigne as paradise -- Never say die -- Heavenly rewards -- Other paradises -- Lovely places, golden ages -- Wonder gardens and pleasure parks -- Dreams of immortality -- pt. 5. The imagination journeys forth: Geographical musings -- Real dreamworlds -- Wonders of east and west -- Fanciful destinations -- Virtual dreamlands -- pt. 6. Heretical excesses: The thousand-year reign of peace and prosperity -- Heresies of the free spirit -- Sex Adam-and-Eve style -- Low-country heterodoxy -- pt. 7. Learning as a matter of survival: Didactic differences -- Topsy-turvy worlds -- Hard times -- Moderation, ambition, and decorum -- Lessons in pragmatism -- pt. 8. Dreaming of Cockaigne, the end: The name Cockaigne -- A depreciated cultural asset -- From countryside to town -- The necessity of fiction.

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"Illustrated with artwork from the Middle Ages, Hermen Pleij's Dreaming of Cockaigne is an account of this "lost paradise" and the world that brought it to life. Pleij takes three important texts as his starting point for an inspired sketch of the panorama of ideas, dreams, popular religion, and literary and artistic creation present in the late Middle Ages. What emerges is a finely differentiated picture of the era, formed and fitted with details from across Europe and from Asia and America, as well."--BOOK JACKET.

"Imagine a dreamland on earth where roasted pigs toddle about with knives in their backs to make carving easy; where grilled geese fly directly into one's open mouth; where cooked fish jump out of the water at one's feet. The weather is always temperate, the wine flows freely, sex is readily available, and all stay forever young." "Such is Cockaigne. Portrayed in legend, oral history, and art, this imaginary land became the most pervasive collective dream of medieval times - an earthly paradise to counter the suffering and frustration of daily existence and to quell anxieties over an ever-more-exclusive heavenly afterlife.".

Dromen van Cocagne.

English

Civilization, Medieval.

Cockaigne in literature.

Cockaigne.

Literature, Medieval.

Social history-- Medieval, 500-1500.

Pleij, Herman.

Webb, Diane.

20140220045457.0

[Book]

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