Subproject 3: The constitution of media, intermediality, and media criticism in Italian, French, and English meditational literature from the 16th and 17th centuries

This subproject explores the concepts of mediation, intermediality, and media criticism, focusing on their development and differentiation in the meditational literature of Italy, France, and England – three European regions which, although shaped by different religious denominations, share a common ascetic basis rooted in late medieval and early modern teachings on meditation. During the first period of funding, the subproject focuses on the transformation of meditative methods into the medium of the book. This includes the examination of the various theoretical perspectives, both explicit and implicit, on the form, function, and theological justification of (or scepticism towards) the interaction of media in meditation books from different confessional backgrounds.

Christian meditation is not limited to one specific medium; rather, it is understood in this context as a regulatory dispositive of structured, learnable communication between God and the believer and furthermore aimed at the meditator’s spiritual self-improvement. Centred on the vertical mediality of the protomedium of Christ and unfolding on the horizontal level on which the meditator’s senses are applied to facilitate the imitatio Christi, meditative practices establish distinct forms of intermediality. According to the respective confessional background, these differ in terms of conceptual imagery and text-image-relations, as well as the way in which they critique horizontal intermediality as inadequate when representing the transcendental.

Italian meditational prose and poetry make full use of both conceptual and iconic imagery; they too, however, are interspersed with caution regarding the use of media. In contrast, French meditational literature, which encompasses both Protestant and Catholic authors, distances itself from images through the use of strategies of allegory and de-rhetorisation. In English meditational literature, there is a distinct Protestant emphasis on liberating meditation from ‘enthusiasm’, achieved through the minimalisation of the use of images and the encouragement that the meditator instead observe the ‘Book of Nature’.

The members of the project work closely with subprojects 1, 2, and 7.