부산대학교 도서관

The purpose of this study is to analyze the change in social consciousness after the outbreak of the Black Death, which was revealed in the late medieval Spanish poem Danza General de la muerte, and to reflect on its significance. As is well known, the Black Death Pandemic sacrificed nearly a third of Europe's population between 1347 and 1351, and was taken a significant opportunity to accelerate the transition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. Danza de la muerte as new motif in literature and art that emerged in many European countries after the Black Death, contains sharp social criticism as well as views on life and death changed after the Black Death. In particular, the consciousness of equality of all people in the face of death and the strict judgment of the vested classes who have corrupted or forgotten their duties is remarkable. In that sense, Danza general de la Muerte served as a new milestone in the satirical literature that criticized the hierarchical order and privileged groups of medieval society, and had a great influence on Renaissance and Baroque literature thereafter. Since the Black Death is a representative example of how pandemic played a decisive role in changing the direction of history and the appearance of the times, it is expected to be a reference point when considering the change of direction in the post-COVID-19 era in the future.