755: Readings in Middle High German. 3 cr.
Calomino, TR 9:30-10:45
This course is devoted to reading and discussion of a variety of literary and historical works in versions deriving from the twelfth through the fifteenth centuries. The continued development of heroic epic narrative in strophic form will be examined in the Kudrun. As a response to the Nibelungenlied, of which we shall consider especially the latter half, the Kudrun exemplifies the reception of Germanic topics and motifs within an updated setting. Verse narratives from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries as well as later prose adaptations of the same will form the basis of discussions on the courtly epic. Here we shall consider Veldeke’s Eneit and Hartmann von Aue’s Iwein. Excerpts from Gottfried’s Tristan as well as a representative selection of “Minnesang” texts will also be included. Further topics will include the use of German prose both for translation and as an independent medium of composition. (e.g., Prose Lancelot) For each of the literary or historical texts in discussion, manuscript evidence will be considered in order to trace dominant and changing patterns in transmission. Class sessions will be spent on literary and linguistic interpretation, translation, and stylistic analysis of passages from each work
