History and Medieval Studies

The Institute for Advanced Study cordially invites you to the discussion and launch of 

Reformations in Hungary in the Age of the Ottoman Conquest (Vandenhoeck & Reprecht Verlage, 2019)

with author Pál Ács (Institute for Literary Studies, Research Centre for the Humanities, Hungarian Academy of Sciences)

This lecture will be dedicated to different forms of the presence of the past in our time. Until recently, two interrogations were essential for our reflection about history: one dealt with the epistemological consequences of the identification of rhetorical and narrative dimensions of the writing of history; the other concerned the place and role of the "historical institution". Today the main issue is the competition between various representations of the past as proposed by historical knowledge, collective memory, and literature.

The vivid and emotionally intense commemoration of the Passion of Christ was a key element in late medieval religious communication across Western and Central Europe. However, still too often, the paramount importance of this socio-religious phenomenon has been asserted by scholars without really investigating the different media involved in this process and how the Passion was presented to, and interiorized, by the faithful. By means of a close analysis of sources and a comparative approach, the workshop will have a twofold goal.