Tristan Story in German Literature of the Late Middle Ages and Early Renaissance. Tradition and Innovation
Author: | McDonald, William |
Year: | 1990 |
Pages: | 250 |
ISBN: | 0-88946-075-2 978-0-88946-075-1 |
Price: | $179.95 |
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Presents a fresh look at the German Tristan stories appearing after the Tristant of Eilhart von Oberge and the Tristan of Gottfried von Strassburg, focusing on the main representatives of the genre from 1235 to 1553. Stimulates a rethinking of the standards by which we measure the achievement of the German Tristan poets who wrote from the 13th century onward.
Reviews
". . . an unusual and useful study which takes a wholly literary approach to the later works on Tristan, explicitly refusing to see them only in relation to the 'two icons', Eilhart and Gottfried. There are substantial interpretative chapters on the works of Ulrich von Turheim, Heinreich von Freiberg, Tristan als Monch, the prose Tristrant, and Hans Sachs. While McD. succeeds in giving due credit for qualities not normally associated with these texts, he does not disguise the increasing tendency to treat the subject-matter in didactic and moralizing terms." - (The Year's Work in) Medieval German Literature
"It is therefore refreshing to find a volume devoted to Gottfried's German successors. . . . and the application of `close-reading' methods to these works is to be welcomed. . . . McDonald's book should still provide a helpful preliminary orientation for students hoping to make their own forays into the "post-classical" Tristan Tradition." - Neil Thomas in New German Studies