Dreaming of Cockaigne

Herman Pleij lectures on Dutch historical literature at the University of Amsterdam. He is the author of the Dutch best-seller Het Gilde van de Blauwe Schuit(The guild of the blue barge), an account of the rituals surrounding the celebration of Carnival in the Middle Ages, and the critically acclaimed book De sneeuwpoppen van 1511(The snowmen of 1511), a lively study of the rise of urban culture and middle-class morality in the southern Netherlands of the late Middle Ages.

List of Illustrations Part 1. The Forfeiture of Happiness: The Beginning 1. Paradise Lost 2. Contours of a Book 3. The Power of Literature Part 2. Texts as Maps 4. Rhyming Texts L and B, Prose Text G 5. The Two Rhyming Texts on the Land of Cockaigne 6. Recitation and Writing 7. Oral Structures in Writing 8. The Existing Potential 9. The Prose Text on Luilekkerland Part 3. Eating to Forget 10. Eating Habits 11. Hunger and Scarcity 12. The Topos of Hunger 13. The Intoxicating Effect of Fasting 14. Gorging in Self-Defense 15. Food in Motion 16. Literary Refreshment Part 4. Paradise Refurbished 17. The Land of Cockaigne as Paradise 18. Never Say Die 19. Heavenly Rewards 20. Other Paradises 21. Lovely Places, Golden Ages 22. Wonder Gardens and Pleasure Parks 23. Dreams of Immortality Part 5. The Imagination Journeys Forth 24. Geographical Musings 25. Real Dreamworlds 26. Wonders of East and West 27. Fanciful Destinations 28. Virtual Dreamlands Part 6. Heretical Excesses 29. The Thousand-Year Reign of Peace and Prosperity 30. Heresies of the Free Spirit 31. Sex Adam-and-Eve Style 32. Low-Country Heterodoxy Part 7. Learning as a Matter of Survival 33. Didactic Differences 34. Topsy-Turvy Worlds 35. Hard Times 36. Moderation, Ambition, and Decorum 37. Lessons in Pragmatism Part 8. Dreaming of Cockaigne: The End 38. The Name Cockaigne 39. A Depreciated Cultural Asset 40. From Countryside to Town 41. The Necessity of Fiction Appendixes 1. Middle Dutch Rhyming Texts on Cockaigne 2. Dutch Prose Text of 1546 on Luilekkerland 3. Dutch Poems Appearing in English Translation Sources Bibliography Index