Walter Haug

Vernacular Literary Theory in the Middle Ages

The German Tradition, 800-1300, in Its European Context

• Gebundenes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

The first edition of this book appeared in German in 1985, and set a new agenda for the study of medieval literary theory. Rather than seeing vernacular writers' reflections on their art, such as are found in prologues, epilogues and interpolations in literary texts, as merely deriving from established Latin traditions, Walter Haug shows that they marked the gradual emancipation of an independent vernacular poetics that went hand in hand with changing narrative forms. While focussing primarily on medieval German writers, Haug also takes into account French literature of the same period, and the principles underlying his argument are equally relevant to medieval literature in English or any other European language. This ground-breaking study is now available in English for the first time.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Cambridge University Press
• Seitenzahl: 444
• Erscheinungstermin: 12. Januar 2011
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 235mm x 157mm x 31mm
• Gewicht: 869g
• ISBN-13: 9780521341974
• ISBN-10: 0521341973
• Artikelnr.: 31797504

Inhaltsangabe

Translator's preface; Preface to the English edition; Introductory remarks;
1. The background: Christian aesthetics versus classical rhetoric; 2. The
problem of the vernacular: Otfrid von Weissenburg and the beginnings of
literary theory in Old High German; 3. Literature, allegory and salvation:
theoretical positions in Early Middle High German; 4. Religious adaptation
of secular forms: the Rolandslied, Brautwerbungsepen ('bridal quests'), the
Alexander romance; 5. Chrétien de Troyes' prologue to Erec et Enide and the
Arthurian structural model; 6. Divine inspiration and the changing role of
the poet in Chrétien's Lancelot and Cligés; 7. Hartmann von Aue's fictional
programme: the prologue to Iwein; 8. Hagiographical legend or romance? -
Hartmann's prologue to Gregorius; 9. Wolfram von Eschenbach's literary
theory: the prologue to Parzival, the metaphor of the bow, and the
'self-defence'; 10. Wolfram's Willehalm: a return to historical romance?;
11. Ethics and aesthetics: Gottfried von Strassburg's literary theory; 12.
The truth of fiction: Thomasin von Zerklære and integumentum theory; 13.
The Lucidarius A-prologue in the context of contemporary literary theory,
and the origins of the prose romance; 14. Magic, morals and manipulation:
the emergence of the post-classical Arthurian romance; 15. Rudolf von Ems'
Der guote Gêrhart: a programmatic rejection of the correlation between
merit and reward; 16. Chance, fortune and virtue: Rudolf von Ems'
Alexander; 17. Wolfram's prologue to Willehalm: a model for later
hagiographical romances; 18. The new genre of love-romance: suffering as a
way to fulfilment. From Rudolf von Ems' Willehalm von Orlens to Ulrich von
Etzenbach's Willehalm von Wenden; 19. Konrad von Würzburg: spellbinding
artistry and individual moral action; 20. Albrecht's Der jüngere Titurel:
magic and moral code in the inscription on the hound's leash; Concluding
remarks; Bibliography; Index.