Weitererzählen und Wiedererkennen: Transtextuelle Figuren in mediävistischer Perspektive

Abstract

Abstract In this article, I lay out a framework for how transtextual characters in medieval narrative can be theorized. I also propose a methodological approach to the analysis of medieval transtextual characters. Starting from the observation that characters in the Middle Ages are almost always transtextual, I argue that we must first clarify the ontological and epistemological status of such characters. A list of characters from ancient and medieval literary tradition in an early thirteenth-century German book of etiquette by Thomasin von Zerklære (Der welsche Gast [The Roman Guest]) serves to illustrate that in the Middle Ages no character, so long as it was rooted in tradition, would have been accepted as fictional unless it bore obvious signs of unreality. However, the ›presumption of historicity‹ with regard to (most) characters did not preclude a high degree of variance in the portrayal of characters. This has been demonstrated by research on heroic epics as well as on the characters of Arthurian epics. In order to do justice to the tension between character identity and its dynamics in the tradition, I propose a model for conceptualizing medieval transtextual characters that distinguishes between a character’s ›iconic core‹ (ikonischer Kern) and the character’s ›edges‹ (Figurenränder). Rather than relying solely on textual evidence, I also suggest reconstructing the iconic cores of transtextual characters from a transmedial perspective whenever possible. My proposal is based on the assumption that visual objects of the so-called decorative arts are not subject to the functions of medieval textual illustrations, such as organizing the text, accentuating the flow of the narrative, or otherwise aiding its reception. In the absence of the text to which they refer, such non-textual objects of visual art promise to focus on the central, iconic elements of a narrative or a narrated character, thus ensuring its recognizability.

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