Die Beiträge dieses Bandes gehen auf eine internationale Tagung zurück, die 2017 in Manchester stattgefunden hat. Sie untersuchen die Darstellung von Geschichte in der mittelalterlichen deutschen Literatur auf der Basis von aktuellen erzähltheoretischen Forschungsansätzen. Dabei wird ein breites Spektrum an Texten, Gattungen und Diskursen in den Blick genommen; als Angelpunkt für zahlreiche relevante Fragestellungen erweist sich die im 12. Jahrhundert entstandene ›Kaiserchronik‹. Geleitet von der Erkenntnis, dass Vergangenheit erst im Erzählen zu Geschichte wird, analysieren die Beiträge einschlägige narrative Strategien.

Stories do not actually exist in the (fictional or factual) world but are constituted, structured and endowed with meaning through the process of mediation, i.e. they are represented and transmitted through systems of verbal, visual or audio-visual signs. The terms usually proposed to describe aspects of mediation, especially perspective, point of view, and focalization, have yet to bring clarity to this field, which is of central importance, not only for narratology but also for literary and media studies. One crucial problem about mediation concerns the dimensions of its modeling effect, particularly the precise status and constellation of the mediating agents, i.e. author, narrator or presenter and characters. The question is how are the structure and the meaning of the story conditioned by these different positions in relation to the mediated happenings perceived from outside and/or inside the storyworld? In this volume, fourteen articles by international scholars from seven different countries address these problems anew from various angles, reviewing the sub-categorization of mediation and re-specifying its dimensions both in literary texts and other media such as drama and theater, film, and computer games.

This volume argues against Gérard Genette’s theory that there is an “insurmountable opposition” between drama and narrative and shows that the two forms of storytelling have been productively intertwined throughout literary history. Building on the idea that plays often incorporate elements from other genres, especially narrative ones, the present study theorises drama as a fundamentally narrative genre. Guided by the question of how drama tells stories, the first part of the study delineates the general characteristics of dramatic narration and zooms in on the use of narrative forms in drama. The second part proposes a history of dramatic storytelling from the Renaissance to the twenty-first century that transcends conventional genre boundaries. Close readings of exemplary British plays provide an overview of the dominant narrative modes in each period and point to their impact in the broader cultural and historical context of the plays. Finally, the volume argues that throughout history, highly narrative plays have had a performative power that reached well beyond the stage: dramatic storytelling not only reflects socio-political realities, but also largely shapes them.

The distinction between author and narrator is one of the cornerstones of narrative theory. In the past two decades, however, scope, implications and consequences of this distinction have become the subjects of debate. This volume offers contributions to these debates from different vantage points: literary studies, linguistics, philosophy, and media studies. It thus manifests the status of narrative theory as a transdisciplinary project.

In this volume, scholars and theatre practioners from Austria, Britain and Germany explore the current state of Austrian drama in studies of the themes, forms and concerns of some of the most important contemporary playwrights. Many of the contributions address works which have not previously been the subject of scholarly analysis. The writers discussed include: Wolfgang Bauer, Thomas Bernhard, Elias Canetti, Peter Handke, Fritz Hochwälder, Elfriede Jelinek, Jakov Lind, Felix Mitterer, Hermann Nitsch, Gerhard Roth, Werner Schwab, Marlene Steeruwitz, Peter Turrini, and the film-maker, Wim Wenders. This collection, which includes photographs and an essay on the problems of translating, will be of particular interest to teachers, students and translators of German-language drama, as well as to a wider theatre-going public.

This handbook in English provides a systematic overview of the present state of international research in narratology. Detailed individual studies by internationally renowned narratologists elucidate 34 central terms. The articles present original research contributions and are all structured in a similar manner. Each contains a concise definition and a detailed explanation of the term in question. In a main section they present a critical account of the major research positions and their historical development and indicate directions for future research; they conclude with selected bibliographical references.