Human ageing is always subject to cultural interpretation. The continuous process of maturing and decline thus only becomes recognisable and significant with the idea of life stages. Here, topoi such as those of the simple child or the wise grey head as habitual patterns of understanding and thought reveal the social and cultural knowledge of life stages in tradition and change. The papers in this volume examine sources from biblical tradition right through to the 21st century and enquire into the argumentative force of the topic, with which apparently fixed ways of thinking can vary and...

Der textwissenschaftlich ausgerichtete Sammelband stellt den Begriff der 'Alterszasur' als heuristisches Instrument in den Mittelpunkt, um das Problem der Messbarkeit und sinnhaften Strukturierung von Lebenszeit in ihrer historischen Bedingtheit nachzuzeichnen. Die Beitrage untersuchen aus literaturwissenschaftlicher, theologischer und historischer Perspektive Texte von der altorientalischen Zeit bis ins 20. Jahrhundert und fragen, wie die Ubergange von Lebensphasen dazu Anlass gaben, uber die individuelle Lebenszeit und die gesellschaftlich-kulturell gepragten Erwartungsnormen fur die...

Didactic rhetoric is a fundamental feature of medieval literature. In this book Poetry and Didactics renowned Germanists study key German texts of the 12th to the 15th centuries to elucidate their didactic dimension and their rhetorical strategies. The book opens up a completely changed perspective on the functional relationships of medieval German literature and sketches a consistent general picture of the situation of literature in the Late Middle Ages.