Overview

'Individuality' is one of the central categories of modern society. Can the roots of modern individuality be found in pre-modern times? Or is our way of thinking about ourselves a very recent phenomenon? This book takes a theoretical approach to the problem, derived from Niklas Luhmann's system theory, in which different forms of individuality are linked to different structures of society in modern and pre-modern times. The papers in this volume approach this problem by discussing a broad variety of medieval and early modern sources, including charters and seals, letters, and naming-practices in a late medieval town. Self-representation is also considered, in 'housebooks' and drawings. Textual studies include autobiography in German Humanism, and concepts of individuality and gender in late medieval literary texts.

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9782503552200

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Based on a collection of papers originally presented at a conference held in Bielefeld in 2009, this volume is a welcome and unusual addition to the Utrecht Studies in Medieval Literacy series. It focuses on the relationship between various forms of individuality and literacy in medieval and early modern Europe and is unusual not only because it extends beyond the Middle Ages, but because of the thematic presence in most of its chapters of the theory of individuality developed by the German sociologist Niklas Lyhmann (1927-98) and his followers. --David Appleby, Thomas Aquinas College, The Medieval Review 17.07.04

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