Search

RECENT SCHOLARSHIP HAS BEGUN TO EXPLORE the meaning of global history, apparently an attractive catchword that allows modern scholars to investigate a past world where many of the evils of [...]

When medieval poets began to reflect on love, it was, from the beginning, a highly complex and problematic phenomenon, mostly determined by frustration, contradictions, and a lack of fulfilment. Highlighting particularly two major texts, one in Latin, the other in Middle High German, this paper brings to light the critically important element of discourse as part of the public performance of theoretical and practical reflections of love in the Middle Ages. Since courtly love thus has to be defined as a literary medium for courtly debates about its own identity, it makes perfect sense that we hardly ever hear about actual individual satisfaction and the realisation of erotic dreams. Instead, the overarching intention by medieval poets was to problematise the issue of love and to present its paradoxes, difficulties, and conflicts through the literary performance, not to present a maudlin, sentimental story with a simple happy end. As we realise here, the debate about proper attitudes towards the other gender, the analysis of values and virtues all contribute to the realisation of the discourse itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the concept of the Absurd seems to be characteristic only of modernity, especially since WWII, we face the intriguing opportunity to investigate its likely first emergence in the early thirteenth century in Der Stricker's Pfaffe Amîs (ca. 1220). While the narrative framework insinuates that meaning and relevance continue to be the key components of the priest's life, especially because he constantly seeks new sources of income for his own generosity and hospitality, his various victims increasingly face absurd situations and are abandoned even to the threat of insanity and death. The analysis of the verse narrative suggests that the protagonist begins to embrace crime and violence as the norm for his operations as a fake merchant. Thus, in some of the episodes of this famous Schwankbuch, elements of the absurd become visible, creating considerable irritation and frustration, if not horror and desperation, among the priest's innocent victims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sometimes the quietest voices in German literature actually appear to have exerted the greatest influence on their contemporaries and posterity. It should not matter for us today when those poets [...]

THE PRESENT STUDY WANTS TO INTRODUCE a significant German author/translator from the late fifteenth century whose work promises to shed more light on emerging global connections through literary channels in [...]

Recent debates about the future of academia have focused primarily on teaching the STEM subjects. This is certainly a valuable call for action, but it also threatens to ignore the significant contributions of the humanities and other fields. This article presents a workable alternative by way of looking at more technical writings by 18th-century German Jesuit missionaries in Sonora (today Mexico and Arizona), which invites a critical analysis of the data provided by those authors about the natural environment and the social conditions and also a thorough examination of "literary" texts at the same time from a humanistic perspective. Those narratives also serve as meaningful documents for all German students in the Southwest because they indicate the importance of the German language for the study of the local history going back almost two hundred years.

In the late Middle Ages, aristocratic and urban circles competed against each other for esteem, legitimacy, authority, and fame. Family chronicles gained significant importance in that process, but we can also identify a definite discourse on dynastic interests in historiographical terms in contemporary literature. This study illuminates in three cases how individual authors conceived of the notion of dynasty and traced the rise and/or fall of their protagonists. Even in the case of an utter demise, the topic itself, the emergence and development of a dynasty, appealed to the wider readership, as reflected in some of the major late medieval German prose narratives and novels. The concept of a mythical origin of the family was particularly attractive, but also the miraculous rise from a low social status to the rank of a king, unheard of in reality, of course. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social historians have often overlooked the evidence of popular literature as a reflection of common cultural conditions and the history of everyday life. But if we want to understand sixteenth-century society, such as in the Holy Roman Empire where the Protestant Reformation had brought about major upheavals, we would be well advised to consider the value of jest narratives that appealed to wider audiences, and this well into the seventeenth century. One of the issues in recent social-historical research has been gender relationships, whether we think of love, sexuality, marriage, or divorce. To shed light on this concern, relevant for all adults throughout early modern society, this article examines the statements about women and their relationships with their husbands in the Lalebuch (first printed in 1597) to gain a better understanding of the dominant patriarchal concepts and their challenges. Even though the anonymous author did not intend, as far as we can tell, to provide specific information about the gender relationship, in the background of the narrative we can discover numerous references of relevance for the exploration of the everyday life situation at the end of the sixteenth century concerning women's roles within marriage and within their community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]