Gottfried von Strassburg: Tristan

Description

This book offers a concise introduction to Gottfried von Strassburg's Tristan. The work is approached both through its context and through a close reading of key passages of the text. The contextual reading compares Gottfried with his predecessors Beroul, Eilhart and Thomas in order to reveal his independent response to the problems and possibilities with which he was confronted by his material. The close textual reading builds up a distinctive interpretation of the work, in which particular attention is paid to Gottfried's reworking of literary tradition, his use of religious analogies, and his awareness of the fictive potential of literary language. A concluding chapter examines Gottfried's medieval reception through the work of his continuators, Ulrich von Turheim and Heinrich von Freiberg, and the Herzmaere of Konrad von Wurzburg.

"Mark Chinca's Tristan is a well-written introduction to this great medieval German classic." Susann T. Samples, Arthuriana "The author's thoughtful and thorough knowledge of Gottfried's brilliance and the Tristan tradition and the abundance of comparative source materials that he cites make this a highly recommendable book." Resemarie Deist, Speculum - A Journal of Medieval Studies