Dear all,
last friday I took my PhD-graduation, it feels great.
After contact with George Ferzoco we thought that it my be of some value for
the list memberos if I could send my abstract to the list. If it does not
interest you, feel free to trash it.
Abstract
Carlquist, J. 1996. "De fornsvenska helgonlegenderna. Källor, stil och
skriftmiljö. (The Old Swedish Saints' lives. Sources, style and literacy.)
Samlingar utgivna av Svenska Fornskrift-sällskapet, part 262, vol. 81.
Stockholm. 261 pp.
This dissertation describes the Old Swedish Saints' lives from a
philological and stylistic view-point, relating vernacular hagiographic
texts to social institutions.
A complete survey of manuscripts containing Old Swedish Saints'
lives and miracles is made. A stratified selection of the manuscripts is
then subjected to both qualitative and quantitative analyses of style, in
which both diachronic and synchronic aspects are taken into consideration.
The study demonstrates that there are considerable differences
between Saints' lives written for a lay audience and Saints' lives written
for a monastic audience. The latter favour bound transmission from their
foreign sources and a monastic ideological information structure, using
complex syntax and displaying an elaborate punctuation. This is due to their
function as a basis for a meditative reflection. Saints' lives for a lay
audience, by contrast, are adapted so that narrative information and simple
syntax are favoured. These texts are more entertaining - although with a
moral point.
The highly literate Vadstena Abbey played a crucial role in the
development of the monastic hagiographic style in the vernacular. The
brethren employed a uniform, religious prose style, ranging from information
structure to punctuation, for the hagiographic material as well as for other
edifying texts. This style developed into a written Bridgettine Old Swedish
standard.
Key words: Philology, stylistics, literacy, Old Swedish Saints' lives,
transmission, transcription, information structure, syntax, punctuation,
Vadstena Abbey.
Of course, this abstract is very short but it gives you at least some
information about what I have done. If there are any questions or comments,
I will try to answere them.
But, I also have some questions myself. Maybe simple ones but I take the
opportunity to make a fool of myself. Those questions are due to one of my
new projects concerning a Old Swedish prayer book from the late 15th
century. In the beginning of this prayer book you can find to different
tables, one is called "Tabula gerlandi", the other "Tabula signorum". What
kind of tables are they and what is their functions?
Sincerely
Jonas Carlquist
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