Literary theory and the German romance in the literary field c.1200

Abstract

From almost the moment it was published Walter Haug’s ›Literaturtheorie im deutschen Mittelalter‹¹ has been a landmark in German medieval studies. Reviewers of the first edition hailed it for establishing vernacular literary theory as a coherent subject for further exploration, and acclaimed it as a book that would set the agenda for work in this area for a long time to come²; it has even appeared in English translation with a leading academic publisher — a rare occurrence in the case of books written in German about medieval German literature and an unmistakable sign of having ›arrived‹ on the wider medievalist scene.³ Like any conspicuous feature in a landscape, Haug’s book has become part unignorable, part taken for granted. On the one hand, it has become a compulsory point of reference for all discussion of literary theory; in particular it has given fresh impetus to the debate, still ongoing, about the nature of fictionality in medieval romance.⁴ On the other hand, little or no sustained attention has been paid to certain more fundamental questions that the book prompts — or sometimes begs — about the nature and function of vernacular literary theory. In the longer term, Haug’s real achievement may lie in his ability to provoke the sort of question that takes the discussion beyond the premises of his own approach to the topic.