The Concordia Discors Topos in Medieval Literature: Contexts, Meanings, Rhetorical Variations
https://doi.org/10.28995/2686-7249-2021-1-10-23
Abstract
The article provides an overview of the contexts in which medieval authors use the “concordia discors” topos dating back to Roman poetry. Six such contexts are identified, in each of which the topos receives a special meaning. In cosmological contexts the topos reflects a situation of harmony between the elements, which are inherently opposite and even hostile to each other. In social contexts it expresses the idea of diversity preserved in a certain social unity (church, state, community of believers). In anthropological contexts the topos can be applied to the structure of the human body, the interaction of body and soul, the mixture of opposite feelings within the soul. In exegetical contexts the topos conveys the paradox of agreement between conflicting statements in the Holy Scriptures; in poetological contexts - the harmony of heterogeneous elements in a poetic work. In musicological contexts the topos describes the real phenomenon of the simultaneous sounding of several voices in polyphonic music (only in these contexts the topos has a literal, not metaphorical, meaning).
About the Author
A. E. Makhov
Russian State University for the Humanities
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Aleksandr E. Makhov - Dr. of Sci. (Philology), Russian State University for the Humanities.
bld. 6, Miusskaya Square, Moscow, 125993.
References
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Review
For citations:
Makhov A.E. The Concordia Discors Topos in Medieval Literature: Contexts, Meanings, Rhetorical Variations. RSUH/RGGU Bulletin: “Literary Teory. Linguistics. Cultural Studies”, Series. 2021;(1):10-23. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.28995/2686-7249-2021-1-10-23
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