Search

A definition of the term "troubadour" is presented. The term refers to an Occitan lyric poet and expresses the agent of the verb "trobar." Topics discussed include the history of Occitan lyric poetry, the production of troubadour songs and the influence of troubadours on French trouvères in the 12th and 13th centuries and on Galician and German poets.

Hartmann von Aue (ca. 1160 - ca. 1205) is the earliest of the celebrated triad of von Aue, Wolfram von Eschenbach and Gottfried von Strassburg that is considered to have composed the apex of medieval German literature. All who came after, including the multifaceted Konrad von WUrzburg, have been regarded as epigones until recently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Walther von der Vogelweide belongs to the remarkable flowering in German literature at the end of the 12th century and in the first decades of the 13th. This brief period produced lyric and narrative poetry of extraordinary quality, and, in the realm of the lyric, the name of Walther von der Vogelweide dominates today as it doubtless did at times in the Middle Ages. The young German at school traditionally encounters several of Walther's songs as an integral part of the curriculum, and it is probably true to say that, of all the lyric poets writing in German in the Middle Ages, Walther is most likely to appeal to the modern reader. The clue to this appeal may perhaps be found in the famous depiction of Walther in the Heidelberg manuscript (Manuscript C), the beautifully illustrated compilation produced in the early 14th century and attributed to the Manesse family. Here Walther is shown in contemplative mood, very much as he describes himself in one of his most famous songs, sitting on a stone, one leg crossed over the other, with his elbow resting on his knee and his chin cupped in his hand. This is not the lover of the illustrations that accompany so many of the entries in the manuscript, but the thinker, musing as Walther does very often in his songs, on a wide range of issues, of which love is only one. Indeed, it is this range of themes and the familiarity of some of them in the modern world that distinguishes Walther and makes him arguably the outstanding Middle High German lyric poet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clemens Brentano is one the most important representatives of German Romanticism, a literary movement which originated in Jena at the end of the 1790s, dissociating itself on the one hand from the literary-political programme of the so-called Berlin Late-Enlightenment ("Berliner Spataufklarung"; Friedrich Nicolai) and, on the other hand, from the aesthetic objectives of Weimar Classicism ("Weimarer Klassik"; Friedrich Schiller, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe). A follower of Ludwig Tieck, whose literary achievements he tried to outdo - Dorothea Veit called him "Tieck's Tieck" ("Tieck des Tiecks") - Brentano was less interested in the theory of Early Romanticism than in its poetic realization. Regarding language and structure, his early texts responded to Friedrich Schlegel's famous call for a "progressive universal poetry" ("progressive Universalpoesie"), that is, for a literary synthesis that would draw together all forms of art and thus initiate the poeticization of the whole of life. After the emphasis of Romanticism had shifted from aesthetics to politics around 1800, Brentano and his friend Ludwig Achim von Arnim published Des Knaben Wunderhorn [The Boy's Magic Horn], a collection of folk songs which they presented as an embodiment of German national literary traditions. Brentano later also paid tribute to the new religious orientation of the Romantic movement after 1808 with his general religious confession (1817). However, during all the different phases of Romanticism, Brentano remained faithful to the restless and unsteady existence of a Romantic poet: his way of life resembled Franz Sternbald's wanderings, which (in Tieck's novel of the same title: Franz Sternbalds Wanderungen [1798]) are driven by infinite longing and can never reach any earthly goal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Konrad von WUrzburg (ca. 1230 -1287) is the single most versatile and prolific author of the thirteenth century. Though long considered an epigon, he has been recognized since the 1980s as the most influential author in medieval Germany. He has been appreciated as a conservator of tradition since many of his works exploit pan-European motifs, but his re-creations make him a conscious innovator. In every composition he goes beyond the conventions and accepted aesthetic programs of his predecessors. He also breaks new ground in his style, thematic content, and narrative techniques. His fellow authors knew this, for his influence is traceable in the work of contemporaries and successive generations of writers. In fact, the reception of Konrad's texts can be traced well into the seventeenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Before the collapse of the German Democratic Republic, Heiner MUller was widely regarded, internationally and in both German states, as "the most important German dramatist since Brecht". Subsequently, like other "heroes" of the GDR semi-dissident scene, he was the target of a concerted campaign accusing him, among other things, of collaboration with the Stasi (Staats-Sicherheitsdienst, the GDR political police) and crypto-Stalinist tendencies. His reputation, despite a short-term eclipse, will survive these inanities; the extended public wake held upon his death on 30 December 1995 gave expression to a deep sense of loss in the vibrant East Berlin cultural scene of which he was the most brilliant protagonist. Ironically, he was the one GDR author who best satisfied the aesthetic criteria advanced by the opponents of "politicised" literature: a unique and individual voice, present from the very beginning; a place in the vanguard of formal innovation, both literary and theatrical, and a deep compulsion to present the inherent contradictions and complexities of his GDR life-world. There is probably no need for a companion volume to Martin Malia's The Soviet Tragedy on the failure of socialism in the GDR; the materials, and the insights, are all to be found in MUller's plays, poetry and prose, which deserve to stand beside the works of BUchner, Kleist, Kafka, Benjamin, Seghers, Frantz Fanon and Aime Cesaire who influenced him so strongly and with whom he shares the conviction of a world demanding redemption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A major figure in German Poetic Realism, Adalbert Stifter is known for his numerous novellas, among them the collection Bunte Steine [Colored Stones], and for the novels Der Nachsommer [Indian Summer] and Witiko. His adult life, always torn between art and financial necessity, was divided into two periods: two decades spent in Vienna, and two in the provincial town of Linz, where he settled into a career as a schools administrator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Frederick Philip Grove was, under his German name, Felix Paul Greve, a minor turn-of-the-century German poet, novelist, translator, and playwright. Later, under the name by which he is more commonly known, he became one of the most prolific and significant Canadian writers of the early twentieth century. He wrote some of Canada's best-known novels of the period, and was a founder of the realist tradition in modern Canadian fiction. More than half a century after his death, Grove remains an enigmatic and controversial figure. Much of the considerable critical interest he has generated centres on his problematic identity, which he deliberately falsified and obscured. His novels, which are at once eclectic, ambitious, experimental, and resistant to categorization, reflect a confused assortment of influences, including nineteenth-century European realism, Anglo-American modernism, naturalism, romanticism, classical tragedy, and various forms of Canadian modern realism. At different times in his long career, Grove/Greve was also a translator, poet, lecturer, essayist, publisher, editor, autobiographer, and author of short fiction. His voluminous correspondence has also been collected and published. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]