'Hoemen een stat of lantscap regieren sal': stadsliteratuur als een politiek instrument voor verandering in het veertiende-eeuwse hertogdom Brabant

This article investigates late medieval urban political thought. By means of a discourse analysis of both didactic and historiographical urban literature, it provides new insights into the political ideas that circulated within the understudied towns of the duchy of Brabant. A qualitative analysis that is grounded in the history of Brabant indicates that literary authors voiced ideas as a reaction on contemporary politics. As political implements, ideas played an active and strategic role within their own society. During the turbulent fourteenth-century literary works tried to convince urban governors to alter their policy in a selective manner. Political change insured the preservation of elitist power, and could thus have a ‘conservative’ character.

Jaar van publicatie:2019

Toegankelijkheid:Closed