Voices from Beyond: The Sense of Crisis in Medieval Literature

Abstract

The sense of crisis in medieval times was fundamentally derived from the religious binarism of an ideal other world and the secular world. A strong desire for salvation in nirvana accelerated anxiety about the inherent corruption and sinfulness of society. Such angst was also reflected in contemporary literary texts in which an insatiable longing for salvation appeared in the form of spiritualism such as voices from beyond.