• DOI:10.1163/9789004307667_006
• Corpus ID: 85463647

Apocalyptic as a New Mental Paradigm of the Middle Ages

@inproceedings{Hubbes2016ApocalypticAA,
  title={Apocalyptic as a New Mental Paradigm of the Middle Ages},
  author={L{\'a}szl{\'o} Attila Hubbes},
  year={2016}
}

• L. Hubbes
• Published 2016
• Art

I wish to premise that I am no medievalist. My principal research field is apocalyptic studies. Some twenty years ago I started investigating apocalyptic art to demonstrate the terminological necessity of apocalyptic as a “new” distinct category for classical aesthetics. After having written two theses while at the university, one focusing on the historical aspects and one on symbolism, for my doctoral studies I turned to the art-historical and generic analyses proper, revealing at the same time the specific nature of apocalyptic catharsis.1 Later investigations led me from early Christian and contemporary adaptations of apocalyptic iconography, through on-line media representations, to rituals and characteristics of apocalypticism.2 This present chapter is meant to be a preliminary study, probing the field for a larger project of a future investigation on the nature of the apocalyptic paradigm.3 Although not specialized in medieval studies, I still feel somewhat accustomed to the Middle Ages due to my inquiries in the artistic-, literaryand cultural history of apocalyptic imagination of those centuries spanning roughly the fifth-century fall of Rome and the fifteenth-century fall of Byzantium. At the same time, being acquainted with not only the historical but also with other (archetypal, metaphysical, psychological, socio-political, rhetorical) approaches of apocalyptic and apocalypticism, I will try in this essay to compare and contrast some of the major views to form a comprehensive synthesis that might help provide a better understanding of apocalyptic beliefs and behavior. The aim of this essay will be an experimental synthesis, in which I argue that apocalyptic, beyond being a scriptural genre and a religious social function, is