Ritual and Politics: Writing the History of a Dynastic Conflict in Medieval Poland

Download or read book Ritual and Politics: Writing the History of a Dynastic Conflict in Medieval Poland written by Zbigniew Dalewski and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2008-03-31 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Referring, by way of example, to the chronicler's story about a dynastic conflict in medieval Poland, this book offers an insight into the modes of using ritual as an effective tool of political action in the Middle Ages—both in the practice of political entreprising, and on the level of narrative information about that practice—and then reflects about the nature of the relationship between the reality of the written account and the reality of the practical activities described in it. It demonstrates the ways in which the reality of the narrative account and the reality of practics—ritual-in-text and ritual-in-performance—overlaid and interlaced one another, and exercised a mutual impact, thereby jointly creating a framework within which, in the earlier and high Middle Ages, political activity took place.