Long Live Death! Paradoxes of Meaning in Medieval Exempla

Abstract

This article pursues narrative constellations which, following Odo Marquard, result from the paradox of mortality (the necessity of death) and the finality of life (the necessity of meaning). On the one hand, the paradox of human existence becomes real and allegorical in the oxymoron of living death. On the other hand, the question of the symbolic function of narrative finds its ultimate challenge in death. Differences are discussed between individual consternation and the social logic of victimisation, casuistic competitions between social registers of values and the ideological management of the transgression of boundaries between life and death. The subject proves to be an inexhaustible reservoir for narratives that push inventio to its limits. These are all special cases that undermine conventional expectations of meaning and narrative through specific procedures: deferral, example, case, oxymoron, allegory, irony, and fortuna.