Synopsis
Drawing upon the most current methodologies, the essays in this book pursue the multifarious functions of end-times in medieval German texts.
The contemporary fascination with the end of the world and of life as we know it would not have surprised our counterparts a millennium ago; only the fact that such an end has not yet occurred. Current visions of the apocalypse encompass climate change, terrorism, antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and war. Popular culture expresses the fear associated with these global crises, obsessively portraying zombies, alien attacks, pandemics, and self-destructive technology. This book explores how end-times were envisioned in medieval Germany. The essays, written by well-established scholars, examine the period's fascination with the apocalypse by applying the most current methodological approaches to a wide range of literary genres. Drawing upon methodologies such as adaptation theory, gender analysis, space and place studies, reception studies, and memory studies, this book uncovers the rhetorical, didactic, narratological, mnemonic, thematic, cultural, and political functions of end-times in medieval German texts.
Contributors: Tina Boyer, Albrecht Classen, Winfried Frey, Will Hasty, Ernst Ralf Hintz, Winder McConnell, Evelyn Meyer, Scott E. Pincikowski, Marian E. Polhill, Alexander Sager, Alexandra Sterling-Hellenbrand, Joseph M. Sullivan.
Ernst Ralf Hintz is Professor of German and Medieval Studies at Truman State University. Scott E. Pincikowski is Professor of German at Hood College.
This collected volume under the editorship of Ernst Ralf Hintz and Scott E. Pincikowski . . . is the result of a successful collaboration of twelve Germanists, mostly Americans, among them Albrecht Classen, Will Hasty, and Winder McConnell. They have set themselves the goal of researching medieval conceptions of sin, evil, and the Apocalypse. The range of sources is diverse, comprising numerous legends, epics, and novels of courtly literature, post-courtly texts, and art objects, as well as religious texts. . . . The volume is to be recommended for readers who are . . . interested in conceptions of ethics and/or morals in the Middle Ages. -- Aleksej Burov * ARBITRIUM *