Death as a character in popular culture through History
Ramón MÉNDEZ GONZÁLEZ
Original title: La Muerte como personaje de la cultura popular a lo largo de la Historia
Published in The World of Tradition
Keywords: Art, Culture, Death, History, Literature, Tradition.
Aside from being part of the cycle of life, Death itself became a very important character in popular culture. Since its first appearance as a Horseman during the Apocalypse, and until nowadays, the character of Death has showed different shapes and has inspired a huge array of sculptors, painters, writers, people of letters, composers, movie makers, illustrators and even video game developers. In each different era of human history, the representation of Death evolved to adapt itself to different idiosyncrasies and ways of understanding the world in each society, as well as the possibilities that technologies offered to these creators of art. The main goal of this paper is to give a brief overview of how the character of Death evolved since its origins to nowadays, through the image of the Western Death that was influenced by the Christian rituals and that became the main anthropomorphism of natural Death.
Sensations and traditions in the discursive configuration of the miracles of liberation of Christian captives (Los Milagros de Guadalupe, 15th and 16th centuries)
Lidia Raquel MIRANDA; Gerardo Fabián RODRÍGUEZ
Original title: Sensaciones y tradiciones en la configuración discursiva de los milagros de liberación de cautivos cristianos (Los Milagros de Guadalupe, siglos XV y XVI)
Published in The World of Tradition
Keywords: Christians, Community, Guadalupe, Sensation, Tradition.
The paper analyses the miracles CXXXI, CXLVII, CLXIIIIII and CLXXXIIII of Los Milagros de Guadalupe, referring to the liberation of Christians from captivity held by the Moors during the 15th and 16th centuries. The sensory, corporal, and affective marks of the subjects of discourse, and the intertextual traces of literary traditions –that of the bestiaries, the evangelical one and that of miracles– identify the distinctive conditions of the sensory and literary community of Guadalupe that gave rise to the collection of miracles. The examination gives an account of the expressive resources used by the friars in charge of the production and propagation of the miraculous stories to establish Christian orthodoxy around the figure of the Virgin Mary of Guadalupe and the symbol and historical fleshing of the captives.
