Der Tod der Nachtigall. Liebe als Selbstreflexivität von Kunst (review)

The iconic reference to the sacrificial nightingale in Marie de France's lai Laüstic provided the organizers of a conference held in Berlin from 6–7 June 2007, and hence the editors of the present volume, with the enigmatic title formulation, 'the death of the nightingale.' This bird serves them as a metaphor for a timeless phenomenon regarding the close correlation of love and art, one conditioning the other in one way or another. But there is a significant problem here insofar as Marie does not create an alternative concept of love with her lai, in contrast to troubadour poetry; instead she develops one of many images of what love does to those involved and how suffering can easily result from this emotion if it collides with norms and rules of society. Moreover, Laüstic is only one of twelve lais, none of which finds consideration in the introduction here, and yet each pursues specific questions regarding love, marriage, and individual happiness. Crucial research on the role of the nightingale in medieval literature, Wendy Pfeffer's The Change of Philomel (1985), and hence on the most symbolic bird for courtly love, has not been consulted. Apart from that, the fundamental thrust of some of the contributions to the present volume aims at a study of how love has created art, whereas other authors investigate the literary strategies for bringing to light the objects of desire, while still others, finally, explore the modalities of writing per se. Unfortunately, this compilation of ultimately quite different themes threatens to erode the common basis for this collection of articles which really do not speak to each other and barely address the specific aspect indicated in the subtitle: 'love as a self-reflection of art.' The editors point out that the summary of the articles was written by Kai Christian Ghattas, whereas the formatting of the manuscript for publication was carried out by Annika Beckmann and Frank Noll. They also thank Prof. Renate Schlesier for much advice regarding content and organization. How much have Baisch and Trînca really worked on this volume?

After a lengthy and fully researched study on images of desire in ancient Greek literature by Susanne Gödde, Jan Söffner examines at great length the issue of courtly love directed at a distant lady, as most poignantly formulated by Jaufre Rudel. "Fernliebe," however, represents one of the constitutive, hence often studied, elements of courtly love per se, as does Minnesang, which makes me wonder where the author really finds innovative aspects in his otherwise thorough discussion. Christoph Huber tries to employ the term "ekphrasis" for love poems by Heinrich von Morungen, Walther von der Vogelweide, and those contained in the Carmina Burana, pointing out the extent to which visualization strategies pertaining to love can be discovered there. But the term "ekphrasis" is really borrowed from a very different context and does not seem to apply to the phenomenon analyzed here. Elisabeth Schmid explores the meaning of Ulrich von Liechtenstein's reference to his mouth in the first book of his Frauendienst in terms of its symbolic reflection of art, though she heavily relies on a rather abstract interpretation.

In Wolfram von Eschenbach's Titurel and in Albrecht (von Scharfenberg)'s equally labeled text young Sigune refers to her dolls, which serve as reflections of her budding maturity and experience of love. Martin Baisch examines the evidence and indicates how much the dolls represent the emergence of erotic feelings, but I cannot find much in his study that would offer new insights. Ulrich Wyss focuses on the phenomenon of the prosimetrum, such as in Ulrich von Liechtenstein's Frauendienst and in Dante's Vita Nuova, but ignores Aucassin et Nicolette, perhaps because he aims at the argument that the development of courtly love also paved the way for critical selfreflections in medieval literature. The dimension of courtly love in courtly romances proves to be problematic...