UCMS lecture Kalina Słaboszowska: Depictions of emotions in the Vita beatae Kunegundis by Jan Długosz

On Wednesday 21 December, the UCMS organises the second UCMS Lunch Meeting of this academic year. Visiting scholar Kalina Słaboszowska (University of Warsaw) will give a presentation about the role of emotions in the work of Polish author Jan Długosz (1415-1480). Dr. Anna Adamska will open the Lunch Meeting and chair the discussion after Słaboszowska’s presentation.

Jan Długosz

Słaboszowska’s presentation will focus on the depiction of emotions in the Vita beatae Kunegundis composed by Jan Długosz (1415-1480), the most prolific Polish author of the second half of the fifteenth century.

Whereas his voluminous Annales Regni Poloniae have been studied extensively, as an important source for the history of late medieval Poland, his hagiographical account of the life of the blessed Kinga (or Kunegunda) has received relatively little scholarly attention.

Emotions

Emotions are crucial for unlocking this hagiographical work. Part of Jan Długosz’ narrative strategy was to create an ‘emotional landscape’, through which he highlighted a wide spectrum of emotional relationships between princess Kinga and the people around her.

These people would consist of her husband and other members of the lay elite, her confessor and the community of the Poor Clares cloister in which she spent the last years of her life, and finally – people from the low social strata. This presentation will propose several questions concerning the role of emotions in the account of Kinga’s life and their connection with her gender, social status and developing sanctity.

Kalina Słaboszowska

Kalina Słaboszowska (born in 1996 in Gdańsk, Poland) is a doctoral student at the University of Warsaw. Currently she is working on her doctoral thesis about emotions and their manifestations in works of Jan Długosz.

Słaboszowska’s research interests, beside the history of emotions and medieval history of Poland, include medieval historiography, history of Central Europe and gender studies. Her research is funded by the National Science Center (Poland).