Selected Chapters from Medieval German Literature

Annotation

The aim of the seminar is to acquaint students with German medieval literature, its development from its beginning to the end of the Middle Ages. Students will become familiar with the most important directions of medieval literature and with the most important authors and works.

Early Middle Ages: Incantations, Blessings, herioc lay Hildebrandslied, Wessobrunn Prayer, Muspilli, Heliand, Otfrid's Gospel Book (Evangelienbuch), Lay of Ludwig (Ludwigslied). High Middle Ages: Imperial Chronicle (Die Kaiserchronik, pre-courtly epic - Alexanderlied, Spielmannsepik, Early Minnesang (Der von Kürenberg), Walter von der Vogelweide.

Courtly epic - Hartmann von Aue, Wolfram von Eschenbach, Gottfried von Straßburg. Heroic epic Nibelungenlied.

Late Middle Ages: Der Stricker – fable (bispel), humorous stories, Wernher der Gartenaere (Meier Helmbrecht). Konrad von Würzburg.

Frauenlob. Mysticism (Mechtild von Magdeburg, Meister Eckhart).

The last subject of our programme will be the interpretation of the work of John of Tepl (Johannes von Tepl) Der Ackermann aus Böhmen, which is already a transition to humanism.