서양 역사 속의 노년 ; 서유럽 중세의 노년에 관한 담론 -추상적 노년에서 현실의 노년으로- = Discourses of Old Age in Medieval Western Europe: From Old Age in Abstract Form to that in Real Life

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Due to scant sources and interpretative difficulties, it is quite difficult to answer the question of the relationship between old age in representations and old age in real life. Bearing this insoluble question in mind, this article discusses various discourses about old age in medieval Western Europe. Discussed are theoretical discourse on the life-cycle, moral discourse on old age and a literary description illustrated in two works of the late Middle Ages. These three viewpoints, of course, do not cover all expressions of old age in the Middle Ages, nor do they indicate a sequential process of development. First, the theories on cursus aetatis varying from triadic to the seven-age scheme, follow the ancient traditions largely in a mechanical fashion; and these beliefs, though long lasting, do not reflect contemporary reality at all. Second, the moral discourses mostly established a hagiographic model of old age embodying Christian virtues, which tended to substitute the Augustinian notion of old age for a stoic notion depicted by Cicero. Consequently the images of old age, as shown in Dante`s Il Convivio, appear in abstract and idealized forms regardless of physical age, based on pessimistic awareness of old age in real life. Finally, unlike this type, two literary works written after the Black Death, that is Decameron and The Canterbury Tales precisely portray old age as it is. They are not a heroic epic of old age going beyond the physical age, but a lyric of the old in which some are wise and benign, while others foolish and caught in lust; most of them sometimes grumble about situations of the aged, while they show a strong desire for life at times. Therefore, it is likely to see discourses and representations of old age run into its earthly realities in the late Middle Ages, while schematic and abstract discourses persisted. For this reason, it is possible and meaningful to try to catch some changes of circumstances surrounding old age and the aged in literary works of the late Middle Ages.