Conversion as an exemplary experience in the 14th century and today: narrative-comparative approaches to the Exemplum

Abstract

What should we learn from another individual’s experience? What kind of narrated experiences become cultural masterplots and genres in different historical contexts? This article introduces an approach to medieval exemplary narratives of conversion that combines narrative theory and comparatist attention to the historical context and forms of narrative experientiality. We take two exempla from the sermon of the feast of the canonization of Saint Birgitta as our test case. The historical specificity of narrative didacticism is further highlighted by comparing medieval exempla with social media-fuelled stories of personal conversion-like transformation that gain representative and normative power in today’s narrative environments. Who are the saints and sinners in today’s social media didacticism? Our narrative-theoretical and comparative analysis focuses on conversion as a replicable model experience and a prototypical element of a shareable narrative. We also pay attention to the dynamics of narrative authorization in medieval and contemporary narrative environments and sketch an interdisciplinary synthesis of the genre of the exemplum as a narrative form.