Medieval Literacy and Textuality in Middle High German

This book discusses the treatment of the theme of reading and writing within a major Middle High German Arthurian romance: Albrecht’s Jüngerer Titurel.

This book addresses the topics of literacy and textuality in order to develop a new line of interpretation for a landmark of Middle High German literature. Albrecht’s Jüngerer Titurel is an intellectually ambitious narrative written ca. 1270 as a prequel and sequel to the more famous Arthurian texts by Wolfram von Eschenbach. Part One of the monograph considers the protagonists’ obsessive engagement with the written word in all its manifestations. Part Two focuses complex construction of two competing narrative personae and on the author’s aesthetic and moral justification of his literary undertaking.

Annette Volfing is Reader in Medieval German Studies at Oxford University and Tutorial Fellow in German at Oriel College. She has published monographs on Heinrich von Mügeln’s Der meide kranz and on the figure of John the Evangelist in Middle High German Literature. She has also published articles on the “classics” of Middle High German Literature (Heinrich von Veldeke, Gottfried von Straßburg, Wolfram von Eschenbach and Walther von der Vogelweide). In thematic terms, her research interests cluster around allegory, bridal mysticism, hagiography and didactic literature.
 

Literacy and Textual Culture: Letters, Lettering and Literature * First and Second Language: Names, Etymologies and Natural Phenomena * The ‘Brackenseil’ and the Grail: Chasing the Texts * Wolfram and vrou Aventiure: Arguing with the Text * The Poetological Program: Moral Instruction, Exemplarity and Allegory