Global Middle Ages: Eastern Wisdom (Buddhistic) Teachings in Medieval European Literature. With a Focus on Barlaam and Josaphat
Abstract
In contrast to many recent attempts to establish concepts and platforms to study global literature, and this also in the pre-modern world, this article claims to present much more concrete examples to confirm that a certain degree of globalism existed already in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. While numerous scholars/editors have simply invited many more voices from all over the world to the same ‘table,’ i.e., literary histories, which has not really provided more substance to the notion of ‘global,’ the study of translated texts, such as those dealing with Barlaam and Josaphat, clearly confirms that some core Indian ideas and values, as originally developed by Buddha, had migrated through many stages of translations, to high medieval literature in Europe.
References
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[21] Albrecht Classen, “Kulturelle und religiöse Kontakte zwischen dem christlichen Europa und dem buddhistischen Indien während des Mittelalters: Rudolfs von Ems Barlaam und Josaphat im europäischen Kontext.” Fabula 41 (2000): 203–28; Constanza Cordoni, “Barlaam und Josaphat in der europäischen Literatur des Mittelalters,” Ph.D. diss., Vienna, 2010. See also the contributions to Barlaam und Josaphat: Neue Perspektiven auf ein europäisches Phänomen, ed. Constanza Cordoni und Matthias Meyer (Berlin and Boston: Walter de Gruyter, 2015); Jacques Le Goff, In Search of Sacred Time: Jacobus de Voragine and The Golden Legend, transl. by Lydia G. Cochrane (2011; Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2014).
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[44] Azadeh Yamini-Hamedani, “On Transcendence and Literariness,” A Companion to World Literature (see. note 35), vol. 2, 774-82; here 776.
[45] Forde, Simon. The Encyclopedia of the Global Middle Ages. London: ARC Humanities Press, 2019; online at: https://www.bloomsburymedievalstudies.com/encyclopedia?docid=b-9781350990005.
[46] Die Historia von den sieben weisen Meistern und dem Kaiser Diocletianus (see note 22); see also Le roman des sept sages, ed. Jean Misrahi. Rpt. (1933; Geneva: Slatkine, 1975); Le roman de Dolopathos: edition du manuscrit H 436 de le Bibliothèque de l’Ecole de Médecine de Montpellier, ed. Jean-Luc Leclanche. Les classiques français du Moyen Âge, 126 (Paris: Champion, 1997).
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