Hardly anything has been more influential in forming the modern era's definition of itself than its relation to the "pre-modern." That is why medieval reception constitutes a central discursive space on the formation of cultural identity of individuals and cultural systems. Ranging from humanism to the present and from Jorg Wickram to Dan Brown, this volume considers basic questions on the forms and functions of the reception of the Middle Ages.

Der Band vereint Beitrage zum Lachen und Schweigen als Sonderformen der Kommunikation in der Erzahlliteratur des Mittelalters und der fruhen Neuzeit. Lachen und Schweigen nehmen auf unterschiedliche Weise Bezug auf Rede: Sie stellen das Gesagte in Frage oder bestatigen es, rahmen oder reflektieren es. Sie begrenzen aber auch das Sprechen und legen seine Wirkung fest, wahrend sie selbst an Regeln gebunden sind. Der Band untersucht verschiedene dialogische Strategien des Lachens und Schweigens von hofischem Roman und Heldenepik bis zu Maren und Reiseberichten.

The series in German medieval studies includes central topics of current research debates in medieval studies and provides a place for groundbreaking research in the field. The series is intended to give international researchers/research teams the opportunity to effectively present innovative surveys and discussions to the scientific community. The series sees itself as a 'young' research forum with a high standard of quality and is therefore also open to excellent degree theses, should they enhance the series.

The study provides a foundation for cultural anthropologists researching the representation of grief in German medieval literature.It examines how the phenomenon of grief in fictional texts can be defined in terms of the theory of emotions and then operationalised; it combines the theory of emotions with performative categories, i.e., with our modern knowledge of ritual and public life in the Middle Ages.The setting and function of grief are closely examined in Wolfram's 'Willehalm', Hartmann's 'Erec' and Gottfried's 'Tristan'.This is a seminal study, combining cultural studies with...

The series in German medieval studies includes central topics of current research debates in medieval studies and provides a place for groundbreaking research in the field. The series is intended to give international researchers/research teams the opportunity to effectively present innovative surveys and discussions to the scientific community. The series sees itself as a 'young' research forum with a high standard of quality and is therefore also open to excellent degree theses, should they enhance the series.

The series in German medieval studies includes central topics of current research debates in medieval studies and provides a place for groundbreaking research in the field. The series is intended to give international researchers/research teams the opportunity to effectively present innovative surveys and discussions to the scientific community. The series sees itself as a 'young' research forum with a high standard of quality and is therefore also open to excellent degree theses, should they enhance the series.

Der spatial turn hat in der Mediavistik zu neuen Ansatzen in der Frage nach Raumkonzepten im Mittelalter gefuhrt, die die Abhangigkeit des Raums von Bewegung und Kommunikation seiner Bewohner und Betrachter dominant setzen. Bislang allerdings wurde kaum differenziert zwischen der philosophischen Raumdiskussion des Mittelalters und einer spezifisch literarischen Raumgenese.
In der vorliegenden Arbeit soll dieses Desiderat geschlossen werden durch eine konsequente Engfuhrung von Erzahlakt und literarischem Raum. Der zentrale methodische Zugriff erfolgt uber den virtuellen Raum: Mit...

This study conceives of Thomas Hoccleve's Regement of Princes (1410-1413) as an essentially performative text, one that expresses its awareness of the manuscript culture in which it is so firmly rooted. The openness of manuscripts is a recurring subject in the Regement and is not only expressed through mere descriptions of, but through complex references to this manuscript context.

Performances of manuscript culture manifest themselves in several aspects of the text. The first is the narrator persona, and especially the question of how persona and text are...

Previous interpretations of the canonical texts of the Trecento adopted the perspectives of their male subjects. For the first time, this study presents a reading of the poetic figurations of female voices. In their songs, voices, and speeches, the protagonists Beatrice, Laura, and Catherine of Siena open their own perspective for interpretation. The study also makes a major contribution to the history of voice.

While there is a long tradition of research into eddic poetry, including the poems classed as wisdom literature, much of this has approached the subject either as a primarily philological commentary or has addressed literary and thematic topics of individual or small groups of poems. This book offers a wide-ranging enquiry into the defining features of Old Norse wisdom, including the representation of wisdom in texts which cross traditional generic boundaries. It builds on recent advances in understanding of pre-Christian religion in Scandinavia, and calls on comparative and supporting...