Linguistics and Literature Studies 6(2): 47-51, 2018 http://www.hrpub.org DOI: 10.13189/lls.2018.060201 The Dream Vision: The Other as the Self Natanela Elias Independent Scholar, Israel Copyright©2018 by authors, all rights reserved. Authors agree that this article remains permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License Abstract The Middle Ages were hardly known for their response. Dream visions form a literary combination of openness or willingness to accept the other, however, sleeping dreams and waking visions. In other words, the research indicates that things were not quite as they seemed. structure of the dream vision enables the necessary state of In this particular presentation, I would like to introduce the repose which ironically may lead to a re-awakening in the possibility of resolving conflict (social, political, religious) search for Truth. Barbara Newman [1] claims that dreams of via literature, and more specifically, through the use of the this kind, "like waking visions, focus less on predicting the popular medieval genre of the dream vision. future than on achieving self-knowledge, entering vividly into past events, or manifesting eternal truths”. Keywords Middle Ages, Self, Other, English literature, According to William Hodapp [2], and as we will try to John Gower delineate in this work, the structure of such visionary texts can be outlined "in four movements: first, the narrator describes an experience that suggested his initial psychological state; second, the narrator recounts a new 1. Introduction experience detailing a changed state of consciousness during which he encountered other characters; third, the narrator In our day and age, as we attempt to aspire to tolerance and describes an exchange, in this case as a dialogue between the acceptance, we must still acknowledge the existence of narrator and these other characters, through which he gained animosity, intolerance and discrimination. I believe that by knowledge; and finally, the narrator describes the aftermath examining some of its origins, we might reach some kind of of this exchange." realization. The dream vision may appear as a 'personal' experience, The Middle Ages (c. 1066-1500) were hardly known for and indeed, it is. However, this personal experience quickly their openness or willingness to accept the other, however, becomes communal as the genre serves as a general concept research indicates that things were not quite as they seemed. that can be applied to literally any man. In this particular work, I would like to introduce the In the process of the construction of a society, which possibility of resolving conflict (social, political, religious) Pierre Bourdieu[3] calls "state formation" the linguistic via literature, and more specifically, through the use of the market becomes dominated by the official language which popular medieval genre of the dream vision as depicted in then becomes the legitimate language – that which is John Gower's Confessio Amantis. This genre encapsulates a accepted – the central, the canonical, the mainstream. Or as deconstructive structure which centralizes the margins the case may be the self. In the process, other discourses (namely, that which can usually be categorized as "the necessarily become marginalized and thus illegitimate, Other" in society) in a manner that eventually leads to a form which then gives rise to a form of "writing between the of self-revelation. In other words, in this process and through lines." Bourdieu "portrays everyday linguistic exchanges as this genre, the self ironically awakens into a 'parallel' situated encounters between agents endowed with socially existence that with the use of storytelling, remembrance, and structured sources and competencies, in such a way that self-reflection, ultimately enables a re-encounter with "the every linguistic interaction, however personal and other" within. insignificant it may seem, bears the traces of the social Just like the poets of old attempted to understand the world structure that it both expresses and helps to reproduce," around them through their writings, I believe much of the which entails that while every utterance is held in tandem same can be done if appropriately applied in our with the canonical rhetorics, it also harbors traces of other post-post-modern (21st century), somewhat jaded times. existent constructs. In other words, literature in general, and The process of "self-discovery" or of self-reflection is the dream vision in particular create a kind of subversive certainly not new to literature. But it takes a unique literary writing which brings the margins (that is, "the other") into style to induce, for lack of a better description, such a reader acknowledgement, albeit covertly, but this ultimately opens 48 The Dream Vision: The Other as the Self up the possibility for self-reflection that would then perhaps disconcerting juxtaposition that the self becomes aware of lead to self-revelation and change, both inward and outward. himself. Namely, the structure of the dream vision makes it This covert subversive strategy emerges in response to the possible to articulate that which could not have been existing dogmatic, institutional limitations. articulated. Leo Strauss [4] describes this phenomenon in Persecution and the Art of Writing as "writing between the lines"; "That literature [literature of persecution] is addressed not to all 2. The Confessio Amantis readers, but to trustworthy and intelligent readers only. It has Confessio Amantis 1 emphasizes the importance of all the advantages of private communication without having passivity in an exercise of storytelling of ethical parables set its greatest disadvantage – that it reaches only the writer's in dream vision tradition. On the surface, the scheme seems acquaintances." This structure seems to correlate with the fairly simple for it presents numerous tales inspired by specific choice of genre – the dream vision, where the different traditions on the backdrop of the seven deadly sins subversive tends to rise in, as Bourdieu[3] puts it, "the fact with an emphasis on some mode of love, or more particularly, that [while] literary or artistic production appears as lust. However, it is far from simple. Most scholars assert that disinterested, as a haven for gratuitous activity that is Gower's Confessio is an attempt to reconcile the ostentatiously opposed to the mundane world of socio-political turmoil of the time through the telling of commodities and power, [it] does not mean that it is classical tales which should serve to regenerate the common interest-free; on the contrary, it means only that it is able good as well as the individual person. In the following more easily to conceal its interests beneath the veil of discussion, I would like to take these assertions further and aesthetic purity." In other words, the literature appears claim that the scope of the Confessio is not only socially "disinterested" while actually possessing elements of oriented but a specifically individual endeavor for salvation "interest," an agenda (again, be social, political, and religious). Much has been said with regard to Gower's in a kind of mystical progress of the soul. In this manner, socio-political claims; however, what I am proposing runs a social change may become possible through personal and bit deeper. In this work, I suggest that instead of applying the individual reflection, which may be attained through a macro (i.e., social commentary) unto the micro (i.e., the reawakening of the self via the regaining of dormant person), the micro should be perceived as the key to knowledge. The protagonist - Amans, a lover doesn't seem to reading/understating/interpreting the macro. belong, for he is in exile from his true self which he wishes to Thus, the "heterodox," "the other," though pushed to the regain; a lover without love, if you will, a subject without the margins, finds its way back into the center via a potent self. Love – Venus and her chaplain, Genius – play here the residue that makes an appearance in high-medieval literature role of Truth. In other words, the purpose of Genius, Love's (c. 1300-1500). The medieval audience, prominently the messenger, is to instruct Amans in his lost art and save him, thoughtful and affluent ones, was able to find many answers and vicariously, society. (both personal and global) in the complex literary works, The path to revelation, however, is not an easy one for which utilized this residue in their style and content, and Amans since he is difficult to awaken. The means with which which I believe can be applied in our society as well. Genius attempts his mission is through story-telling. The dream vision presents tales in a form of meditation Story-telling and this mode of confession seem to force the that would lead to remembrance, which would then individual into a state of self-reflection. Through the culminate in knowledge and revelation, both on the personal personal experience of the knowledge that the tales aim to level and on the communal one. In these literary texts, the impart and a self-re-assessment, the penitent is meant to dream vision becomes the locus of knowledge, the place of recall his true self and be saved. Truth in which that which was absent becomes hauntingly The Confessio is divided into eight books: seven books present. Or as Hodapp [2] states: "Dream vision is a that deal with the seven deadly sins, with special focus on the sub-genre of the visionary narrative through which authors last sin – lechery, and one seemingly digressive book about typically explore interior, spiritual experiences by good kingship. This entire process is enabled through the articulating an irrational dream world within the context of a guiding hand that comes in the form of a wise woman – dreamer's rational waking world," and it is in this irrational Venus, the powerful pagan Goddess of Love and Amans' dream world (disguised as the rational waking world) that the intended patron.