Emotional memory and religious identity in the Saxon Marches (10th-11th centuries)

• Authors: Mihai Dragnea

Title variants

CS

Emoční paměť a náboženská identita v Saských markách (10.-11. století)

• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

This paper examines the connection of memories to emotions as they were transmitted by chroniclers through narratives. Emotional memories played a significant role in the recollection of some brutal events connected to ecclesiastical policies in eastern Saxony and across the Elbe, where the socalled Wends lived. The paper focuses on the interactions of cognition and emotion. It shows that emotional memories were not only rhetorical devices, but also didactic tools in the process of creation of Wendish idolatry as a Christian construct of a socioreligious identity. Certain negative events from the past placed within theological frameworks were intended to provoke hostile emotional responses towards the Wends. Preserving memory on ecclesiastical matters, with faith and obedience as central elements of identification, was an ethical mission of all those in charge of writing history, usually clergymen.

Keywords

EN

Saxon Marches; Ottonians; Wends; emotional memory; religious identity; idolatry; apostasy; Christianity; conversion

Discipline

• HISTORY: HISTORY

• Publisher: Institute of History, Czech Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Český časopis historický (The Czech Historical Review)
• Year: 2024
• Volume: 122
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 227-249
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Mihai Dragnea

• Historický ústav AV ČR, v. v. i., Prosecká 809/76, 190 00 Praha 9, Czech Republic