German Literature of the Early Middle Ages
Title | German Literature of the Early Middle Ages PDF eBook |
Author | Brian Murdoch |
Publisher | Camden House |
Total Pages | 320 |
Release | 2004 |
Genre | Literary Criticism |
ISBN | 9781571132406 |
A detailed, contextualized picture of the very beginnings of writing in German from around 750 to 1100. This second volume of the set not only presents a detailed picture of the beginnings of writing in German from its first emergence as a literary language from around 750 to 1100, but also places those earliest writings into a context. The first stages of German literature existed within a manuscript culture, so careful consideration is given to what constitutes the actual texts, but German literature also arose within a society that had recently been Christianized -- through the medium of Latin. Therefore what we understand by literature in Germany at this early period must include a great amount of writing in Latin. Thus the volume looks in detail at Latin works in prose and verse, but with an eye upon the interaction between Latin and German writings. Some of the material in the newly written German language is not literary in the modern sense of the word, but makes clear the difficulties and indeed the triumphs of the establishing of a written literary language. Individual chapters look first at the earliest translations and functional literature in German (including charms and prayers); next, the examination of heroic material juxtaposes the Hildebrandlied with the Christian Ludwigslied and with Latin writings like Waltharius and the panegyrics; Otfrid's work -- the Gospel-poem in German -- is given its due prominence; the smaller German texts and the later prose works are fully treated; as is chronicle-writing in German and Latin. Old High German literature was a trickle compared to the flood of the Latin that surrounded (and influenced) it, but its importance is undeniable: that trickle became a river. Contributors: Linda Archibald, Graeme Dunphy, Stephen Penn, Christopher Wells, Jonathan West, Brian Murdoch. Brian Murdoch is Professor of German at the University of Stirling, Scotland.
Medieval German Literature
Title | Medieval German Literature PDF eBook |
Author | Marion Gibbs |
Publisher | Routledge |
Total Pages | 472 |
Release | 2002-09-11 |
Genre | Literary Criticism |
ISBN | 1135956782 |
This comprehensive survey examines Germanic literature from the eighth century to the early fifteenth century. The authors treat the large body of late-medieval lyric poetry in detail for the first time.
German Literature of the High Middle Ages
Title | German Literature of the High Middle Ages PDF eBook |
Author | Will Hasty |
Publisher | Boydell & Brewer |
Total Pages | 350 |
Release | 2006 |
Genre | Literary Criticism |
ISBN | 1571131736 |
New essays on the first flowering of German literature, in the High Middle Ages and especially during the period 1180-1230.
The Cambridge History of German Literature
Title | The Cambridge History of German Literature PDF eBook |
Author | Helen Watanabe-O'Kelly |
Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
Total Pages | 632 |
Release | 2000-06-12 |
Genre | Literary Criticism |
ISBN | 9780521785730 |
This is the first book to describe German literary history up to the unification of Germany in 1990. It takes a fresh look at the main authors and movements, and also asks what Germans in a given period were actually reading and writing, what they would have seen at the local theatre or found in the local lending library; it includes, for example, discussions of literature in Latin as well as in German, eighteenth-century letters and popular novels, Nazi literature and radio plays, and modern Swiss and Austrian literature. A new prominence is given to writing by women. Contributors, all leading scholars in their field, have re-examined standard judgements in writing a history for our own times. The book is designed for the general reader as well as the advanced student: titles and quotations are translated, and there is a comprehensive bibliography.
A Companion to Middle High German Literature to the 14th Century
Title | A Companion to Middle High German Literature to the 14th Century PDF eBook |
Author | Francis G. Gentry |
Publisher | |
Total Pages | 528 |
Release | 2002 |
Genre | Architecture |
ISBN |
This volume is a guide to medieval German literature from its beginnings in the eighth century to the fourteenth century. It will escort the motivated student and colleague with interest in the European Middle Ages but no expertise in older German languages. The chapter authors, all internationally-known scholars, were given the freedom to arrange their chapters as they felt most appropriate, including the question of the terminus ad quem. Chapters deal either with a chronological period, e.g. 13th century, or with specific genres, eg. drama. In addition, chapters both on the historical epoch and on the development of the German language in the medieval period have been included. In general, historical and cultural topics play an important role in each chapter.
Beards and Texts
Title | Beards and Texts PDF eBook |
Author | Sebastian Coxon |
Publisher | UCL Press |
Total Pages | 234 |
Release | 2021-09-08 |
Genre | Literary Criticism |
ISBN | 1787352218 |
Beards and Texts explores the literary portrayal of beards in medieval German texts from the mid-twelfth to the early sixteenth centuries. It argues that as the pre-eminent symbol for masculinity the beard played a distinctive role throughout the Middle Ages in literary discussions of such major themes as majesty and humanity. At the same time beards served as an important point of reference in didactic poetry concerned with wisdom, teaching and learning, and in comedic texts that were designed to make their audiences laugh, not least by submitting various figure-types to the indignity of having their beards manhandled. Four main chapters each offer a reading of a work or poetic tradition of particular significance (Pfaffe Konrad’s Rolandslied; Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Willehalm; ‘Sangspruchdichtung’; Heinrich Wittenwiler’s Ring), before examining cognate material of various kinds, including sources or later versions of the same story, manuscript variants and miniatures and further relevant beard-motifs from the same period. The book concludes by reviewing the portrayal of Jesus in vernacular German literature, which represents a special test-case in the literary history of beards. As the first study of its kind in medieval German studies, this investigation submits beard-motifs to sustained and detailed analysis in order to shed light both on medieval poetic techniques and the normative construction of masculinity in a wide range of literary genres.
Ogling Ladies
Title | Ogling Ladies PDF eBook |
Author | Sandra Lindemann Summers |
Publisher | University Press of Florida |
Total Pages | 186 |
Release | 2019-03-18 |
Genre | Literary Criticism |
ISBN | 0813063973 |
In the European Middle Ages, the harm a person’s gaze could cause was greatly feared. A stare was considered an act of aggression; intense gazing was believed to exert immense power over the individual observed. The love of looking, or scopophilia, is a common motif among female figures in medieval art and literature where it is usually expressed as a motherly or sexually interested gaze--one sanctioned, the other forbidden. Sandra Summers investigates these two major variants of female voyeurism in exemplary didactic and courtly literature by medieval German authors. Setting the motif against the period’s dominant patriarchal ethos and its almost exclusive pattern of male authorship, Summers argues that the maternal gaze was endorsed as a stabilizing influence while the erotic gaze was condemned as a threat to medieval order. Summers examines whether medieval artists and writers invented the idea of “ogling,” or whether they were simply recording a behavioral practice common at the time. She investigates how the act of ogling altered the narrative trajectory of female characters, and she also considers how it may have affected the regulation and restriction of women during Europe’s Middle Ages. Drawing upon contemporary gender studies, women’s studies, film studies, and psychology, Summers argues that the female gaze ultimately governs social formation. The exploration of the female gaze in period literature transcends medieval scholarship and impacts our understanding of the broader problem of gender perceptions and social structuring in Western civilization.