Med öga för publiken : Moralisk fostran genom heliga Birgittas och de svenska predikanternas exempelberättelser, cirka 1340-1500

Sammanfattning: This dissertation is a comparative and deconstructive study of the use of narrative exempla in the Revelations of Saint Birgitta (also known as Saint Bridget of Sweden) and in Swedish sermon collections from the Late Middle Ages. The purpose is to show how Birgitta during the 14th century and Swedish preachers during the 15th century morally educated their audiences through the inclusion of exemplary stories in their works. Furthermore, this dissertation discusses and analyses the ways in which these authors adapted their stories to suite their respective audience. It distinguishes between how Birgitta addressed the worldly and religious leaders of Europe and how the Swedish preachers addressed a socially stratified Swedish congregation by applying Jonathan Cohen’s theory of identification with media characters. This dissertation hereby contributes not only to research concerning the didactics of Christian exemplary literature, but also to the methodology in which audience adaptation in this literature can be evaluated.Among the results of this study one finds that the exemplary stories in the Revelations and Swedish sermon collections are often used to rhetorically reinforce doctrinal lessons concerning man’s reciprocal relationship with God. Many of the lessons deal with Christ’s justice, the devil’s evil nature and man’s proper faith and hope in God. However, Birgitta tends to use her stories as analytical explanations for theses lessons, while the Swedish preachers use theirs as simple arguments for them. In view of narrative structure and content, Birgitta tends to focus on describing protagonists’ thoughts and inner disposition in her stories, whereas the Swedish preachers focus on protagonists’ physical course of action in their stories. Moreover, both authors depict international characters, settings and complication motives. Still, Birgitta highlights those associated with the higher estates, while the Swedish preachers emphasize those associated with general church life and the lower laity.These results correlate well with strategies suggested in media research for enticing audience identification with characters. In particular, I find that the virtuous or sinful way of life, led by the protagonists in the exemplary stories, mimics that of Birgitta’s and the Swedish preachers’ different target groups. Yet even more strikingly, numerous protagonists are also found to possess attractive heroic ideals. They embody heroic role models, which the authors’ respective audience can be expected to have wished to emulate themselves, and which Birgitta and the Swedish preachers likewise wanted their audience to follow, though to different extents and in different manners. While Birgitta and the Swedish preachers both used exemplary stories to morally educate their recipients in accordance with the Christian exemplary tradition, I thus conclude that their teaching differed in several significant ways, supporting the premise that the authors knew what they wanted to convey, and that they had a good eye for their respective audience.