Ästhetik der Identität: Sänger-Rollen in der Sangspruchdichtung des 13. Jahrhunderts (review)

Generations of medievalists on both sides of the Atlantic have long endeavored to conscribe, define, and sociohistorically come to terms with the concept of narrative performance and identity. The question of “who is speaking” and what roles a given speaker assumes often infer answers that still require a more precise evaluative instrument. As early as the 1930s, Mikhail Bakhtin explored uncharted narrative territory in his work on multiple voices and heteroglossia in medieval literature, a work that applied textual categories to pinpoint the locus of speech, whether inter-, intra-, or extradiegetic. Although this orientation still benefits literary scholarship, greater sophistication has proved necessary beyond locating the narrative locus—either within or outside a text. This exploration of the frontiers of narrative identity continued throughout the twentieth century by scholars such as Roman Ingarten, Hans Robert Jauß, and Wolfgang Iser to mention but a few. The various emphases and standpoints that form an aesthetic identity may be as elusive as they can be fluid. More recently, Elke Koch convincingly examined the nexus between mourning and identity (Trauer und Identität) in the staging of emotion in thirteenth-century literature.

Claudia Lauer now furthers our understanding of medieval identity through her philological study and revised doctoral dissertation, Ästhetik der Identität, which provides us with a sophisticated and subtle approach to discover “who is speaking,” what roles the speaker assumes, and the consequences for an aesthetic identity. Not just a single narrative role, but a composite, Bündelung, of roles may act as determinants in constituting a speaker’s aesthetic identity. The components, in turn, may congregate either within, endogen, or outside, exogen, a given text. Indeed, elements that shape aesthetic identity may at times cross borders to incorporate both narrative domains. Lauer gives plausible answers to the question, “Wer spricht?” by focusing on the broad lyric genre of Sangspruchdichtung during the height of its popularity in the thirteenth century. She aptly divides her study into four sections. In the first, she introduces her study as rhetorically and philosophically grounded in the Ciceronian persona-concept, which reconciles the identity of the speaker with its instantiations in many and diverse roles. This conceptual and structural model advocated the unity of one in many and enjoyed widespread acceptance throughout the medieval period, most notably in the representation of Christian Trinitarian belief. Lauer skillfully applies the Ciceronian persona-concept to aesthetic role-playing as a major factor in constituting medieval aesthetic identity. In the second section, she introduces four widely known representatives of Sangspruchdichtung, namely, Walther von der Vogelweide, Reinmar von Zweter, Der Marner, and Der Meißner. In doing so, she also takes care to differentiate between it and Minnesang by denoting the wider range of identity proffered by the former. Lauer employs a comparative authorial instrument for examining the differing aesthetic constructions of identity in four prominent categories: “geistliche Lehre,” “weltliche Lehre,” “politische Lehre,” and “Kunstlehre.” The reader will find the multiple aesthetic identities of the “speaker” convincingly established through Lauer’s measured and subtle analysis. Her treatment of political teachings is especially illustrative of her methodology. Taking into account previous scholarship, especially the work of Ulrich Müller, whose seminal studies on political Sangspruchdichtung remain essential reading, Lauer succeeds in identifying the subtle reconstitutions of aesthetic identity in songs by major poets. A case in point is the Reichsklage of Walter von der Vogelweide: “Ich saz ûf einem steine. . . .” Lauer aptly reexamines this well-studied poem in view of its traditional interpretation as an exponent of philosophical, religious, and juridical authority. By virtue of her own methodological approach, she draws a set of plausible and illuminating conclusions: “Vor dem Hintergrund des idealen Wirkzusammenhanges von guot, êre und gotes hulde kombiniert Walters Reichsklage so insgesamt gesehen in ungewöhnlicher Weise die verschiedenen sozial vorgeprägten Rollenelemente aus dem weltlichen Bereich: Indem der Sänger die soziale Rolle des Ratgebers imposant negiert...