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SECOND PUBLIC EXAMINATION

Honour School of Modern Languages

GERMAN VI

MEDIEVAL GERMAN CULTURE (TO 1450):

TEXTS, CONTEXTS AND ISSUES

TRINITY TERM 2016

Thursday, 2 June, 9.30 a.m. – 12.30 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. ‘Minne ist Ziel und Gefährdung zugleich’ (BURKHARD HASEBRINK). Discuss with
reference to ANY ONE text from the period.

2. Consider, with reference to ANY ONE text from the period, the shift from collective to
individual identity.

3. How useful is the concept of ‘figure’ for a reading of medieval narrative texts?

4. To what extent can medieval German songs be considered lyric?

5. How useful is the concept of EITHER tragedy OR comedy for understanding medieval texts?

6. Discuss the significance of material culture for an understanding of ANY ONE text from the
period.

7. Analyse the way in which ANY ONE text from the period engages with a different culture.

8. Assess the status of the imaginary for an understanding of medieval literature.

9. What significance does the term ‘erniuwen’ have for the presentation of authorship? You may,
if you wish, restrict your answer to ANY ONE text you have studied.

10. ‘Mittelhochdeutsches Erzählen ist komplexer als die zeitgenössischen Möglichkeiten seiner
expliziten Beschreibung’ (MARKUS STOCK). Discuss with reference to ANY ONE work.

11. Assess the way in which ANY ONE work of Old High German Literature adapts biblical texts
for a medieval audience.

12. What role does orality play in ANY ONE work of Old High German literature you have
studied?

13. Consider the view that medieval reception of classical antiquity is a story of discontinuity rather
than continuity.

14. EITHER, (a) Consider the view that medieval accounts of journeys to the Orient are
never about the East, but rather projections of the West.

OR, (b) What role do female figures play within the bridal quest narratives? You
may, if you wish, restrict your answer to ANY ONE text.

15. EITHER, (a) ‘Wer seine Ehrenverliert, verliert seinen Namen’ (JAN-DIRK MÜLLER).
Discuss ONE OR MORE examples of Arthurian romance in the light of
this comment.

OR, (b) Assess the significance which seeing and the visual have within the world
of Arthurian romance.

16. EITHER, (a) Discuss the view that couples rather than individual protagonists are at the
heart of Hartmann’s narratives.

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 OR, (b) Assess the extent of narratorial irony in Hartmann’s works.

17. EITHER, (a) ‘Der Erzähler tritt […] so dominierend hervor, dass man ihn für die
Hauptsache der Dichtung halten könnte’ (JOACHIM BUMKE). Discuss
Wolfram’s works in the light of this comment.

OR, (b) Assess the significance of geographical space in the works of Wolfram von
Eschenbach.

18. EITHER, (a) To what extent are relationships in the ‘Minnesang’ portrayed as
symmetrical?

OR, (b) Discuss the use of images of light and reflection in the ‘Minnesang’.

19. EITHER, (a) How useful is it to view Tristan as a trickster? You may, if you wish,
restrict your answer to ANY ONE version of the medieval Tristan
narratives.

OR, (b) What is the relationship between bodies and clothes in Gottfried’s Tristan?

20. EITHER, (a) How helpful are modern concepts of emotion for an understanding of the
Nibelungenlied?

OR, (b) What is the role of intrigue and deception in the Nibelungenlied?

21. What role do intertextual relationships play in EITHER the Klage OR Kudrun?

22. EITHER, (a) Discuss the ‘maeren’ as a response to courtly narrative. Your answer
should draw on TWO OR MORE texts.

OR, (b) What is the link between comedy and transgression? Discuss with reference
to TWO OR MORE of the ‘maeren’ you have studied.

23. EITHER, (a) What strategies do medieval saints’ lives use to authorize the narrative?

OR, (b) How appropriate is it to see late medieval literature as increasingly secular?

24. EITHER, (a) To what extent is writing about the body a specifically feminine concern?
Discuss with reference to ANY ONE work you have studied.

(b) Discuss the literary strategies which shape the voice of ANY ONE work of
mystical writing you have studied.

25. ‘Didaktische Texte besitzen ihre eigenen Dignität und gehorchen eigenen literarischen Regeln’
(ELKE BRÜGGEN). Discuss with reference to ANY ONE example of Middle High German
didactic writing.

26. Discuss how ANY ONE WORK you have studied negotiates the difficulty of writing about
something which is inexpressible.

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27. Assess the relationship between autobiographical modes of writing and collective identity with
reference to the work of EITHER Johannes von Tepl OR Heinrich Wittenwiler OR Oswald von
Wolkenstein.

28. To what extent to we need to know about the performance situation of medieval drama in order
to interpret it?

29. Consider the role of genealogy for ANY ONE example of late medieval narrative.

30. Discuss, with reference to ANY ONE work, the relationship between activity and passivity in
late medieval religious discourse.

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