The Middle Ages - far and near

Reading works distant in time implies a splitting of consciousness. On the one hand, the desire to immerse ourselves in another world with its historical and aesthetic particularities points us towards an otherness that enriches and at the same time questions us.  We read old texts with a willingness to change, at least temporarily. Medieval literature thus turns out to be an encounter with a distant past. On the other hand, we immerse ourselves in another world, conscious or not that we live in the 21st century. By reading old works, we affirm ourselves. We become more familiar with our own culture and with the culture of the Middle Ages. In this way, this past age also becomes closer to us.

This ambivalent consciousness underlies the studies in this book. They are divided into three parts: general problems of medieval literature, commentaries on contemporary authors in terms of medieval artistic processes, and presentations of iconic works that have influenced European literature to this day. And the enjoyment of reading medieval works can combine the distant and the present in harmonious unity. Readers' experiences of encountering medieval works show that communing with otherness is not only possible. It is the guarantee of human fulfillment to which we all aspire.

Stoyan Atanasov