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SECOND PUBLIC EXAMINATION

Honour School of Modern Languages
Honour School of European and Middle Eastern Languages

GERMAN VI

MEDIEVAL GERMAN CULTURE (TO 1450):

TEXTS, CONTEXTS AND ISSUES

TRINITY TERM 2019

Thursday, 30 May, 2.30 p.m. – 5.30 p.m.

Candidates must answer THREE questions.

Candidates must NOT make ANY ONE writer or work the principal subject of MORE
THAN ONE ANSWER.

Candidates must NOT answer questions with reference wholly or chiefly to works
they are offering as Early Texts prescribed for study as examples of literature, or
which form the principal topic of their Special Subject or Extended Essay.

Candidates offering Wolfram’s Parzival in Paper IX are not debarred from writing
on other works by Wolfram in Paper VI.

Do not turn over until told that you may do so.

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 1. EITHER, (a) How do medieval conceptions of identity differ from modern ones? Your
answer should refer to ONE OR MORE medieval German texts.

OR, (b) To what extent do medieval German literary texts reflect a distinction between
public and private life?

2. How helpful is it to approach medieval German narratives in terms of psychological motivation?

3. How important are genealogical structures to medieval German literature? Your answer should
draw on TWO OR MORE texts.

4. Discuss the importance of EITHER the creation OR the end of the world as themes in medieval
German literature.

5. How is the agency of the devil presented in medieval German literature? Your answer should
draw on TWO OR MORE texts.

6. EITHER, (a) Compare and contrast two medieval German literary texts that deal with
conflict resolution.

OR, (b) Discuss the rhetorical strategies deployed in any medieval German text that
features a formal debate OR a legal dispute.

7. Discuss the significance of ONE of the following terms for Middle High German literature:
aventiure; zuht; kiusche; triuwe.

8. How useful is the concept of ‘hybridity’ for the interpretation of medieval German literary texts?

9. How do you account for the popularity of the motif of the abduction of women across a range of
genres? Your answer should draw on TWO OR MORE texts.

10. EITHER, (a) How is the motif of shame OR guilt deployed in medieval German literature?
Your answer should refer to TWO OR MORE texts.

OR, (b) How do medieval German literary texts present penitential stances and
actions? Your answer should refer to TWO OR MORE texts.

11. EITHER, (a) What part do birds AND/OR animals play in the construction of courtliness?

OR, (b) How does medieval German literature present creatures (e.g. dwarves or
giants) that exist in opposition to a normative conception of humanity?

12. EITHER, (a) How helpful is the term ‘carnevalesque’ in relation to medieval German
literature?

OR, (b) How is the notion of wisdom thematized in medieval German literature?

13. ‘Old High German texts are primarily of linguistic, rather than of literary, interest.’ Discuss.

14. How do the medieval German romances of antiquity make the subject-matter relevant for the
medieval recipients?

15. Discuss the interplay between political history and salvation history in ONE OR MORE Middle
High German texts.

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16. How do medieval German literary texts engage with the problem of bad or unworthy rulers?

17. EITHER, (a) Assess the importance of the supernatural in medieval German Arthurian
romance.

OR, (b) ‘Medieval German Arthurian romances repeatedly undercut the ideality of
Artus and of the Round Table.’ Do you agree? Your answer should draw on
TWO OR MORE texts.

18. EITHER, (a) ‘Gottfried’s Tristan is fundamentally more concerned with art than with love.’
Discuss.

OR, (b) Assess the function of religious imagery and allusion in Gottfried’s Tristan.

19. EITHER, (a) Assess the presentation of religious difference in Parzival AND/OR Willehalm.

OR, (b) How does Wolfram’s narrator engage with the audience in ANY ONE OR
MORE of the following: Parzival, Willehalm, Titurel?

20. EITHER, (a) Discuss the significance of the manuscript transmission for our understanding
of ‘Minnesang’.

OR, (b) How clearly may one distinguish between lyrical and narrative elements in
‘Minnesang’?

OR, (c) Discuss the significance of EITHER social class OR the natural world in
‘Minnesang’.

21. EITHER, (a) How inevitable is the final catastrophe in the Nibelungenlied?

OR, (b) Is the Nibelungenlied a misogynistic text?

22. What strategies are deployed in the construction of authority in ‘Spruchdichtung’?

23. EITHER, (a) How do medieval German hagiographical texts present the interplay between
physical and mental suffering? Your answer should draw on TWO OR MORE
texts.

OR, (b) How do we account for courtly elements in texts that focus on a protagonist
committed to the religious life? Your answer should draw on TWO OR MORE
texts.

24. Discuss the function of the grotesque in medieval German ‘mæren’.

25. To what extent may the term ‘life-writing’ be applied to the works of Ulrich von Lichtenstein
AND/OR Oswald von Wolkenstein?

26. EITHER, (a) What devices are used in mystical texts to involve the reader in the
experiences described?

OR, (b) What part does gender play in the writing of Mechthild von Magdeburg?

27. How do medieval German religious plays present time and space?

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28. EITHER, (a) Discuss the interplay between entertainment and didacticism in Wittenwiler’s
Ring.

OR, (b) ‘Intertextuality is key to understanding Wittenwiler’s Ring.’ Do you agree?

29. How do you account for the increasing importance of prose for secular German literature
towards the end of the medieval period?

30. How sharply may one distinguish between late medieval and humanist writing in German?

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