Sehen und Sichtbarkeit in der Literatur des deutschen Mittelalters edited by Ricarda Bauschke, Sebastian Coxon, Martin H. Jones, and: Visibilität des Unsichtbaren. Sehen und Verstehen in Mittelalter und Früher Neuzeit edited by Anja Rathmann-Lutz (review)

Two recent volumes on visuality and visibility explore a broad range of issues having to do with visual representation, seeing, and perception in the Middle Ages. The first, Visibilität des Unsichtbaren: Sehen und Verstehen in Mittelalter und Früher Neuzeit, edited by Anja Rathmann-Lutz, is a multidisciplinary volume whose seven essays are closely focused on a central issue, namely the process of translating visual objects, signs, and events into meaning. The second, Sehen und Sichtbarkeit in der Literatur des deutschen Mittelalters, edited by Ricarda Bauschke, Sebastian Coxon, and Martin H. Jones, collects conference papers by literary scholars presented at the twenty-first Anglo-German Colloquium, held in London in 2009.

Visibilität des Unsichtbaren includes contributions by Germanists, art historians, historians, and theologians. It is focused around a single theme within the broader field of visual studies, namely the tension between seeing and perceiving in medieval texts, images, and the visual arts. The introduction distinguishes between the terms “Visualität/Visualisierung” (visuality/visualization) and “Visibilität/Visibilisierung” (visibility/visibilization) because, according to the editors, “the two semantic fields describe different aspects in the process of perception” (10). Visualität/Visualisierung refers to something that can be seen quite concretely, such as gestures or objects, whether these are actually physically present or described in words. Visibilität/Visibilisierung relies on visualization but focuses on the process of assigning meaning to the thing that is seen. A translation into English of the editors’ definition of the terms would be “visibility/the act of rendering something visible,” but what is meant is the act of visually perceiving and understanding something, as opposed to merely seeing it. The distinction that the editors make is a valid and important one. While the physiology of seeing is the same for all cultures, the perception of what one sees, and the assignation of meaning, is socially constructed and involves an interpretive process. Perception and understanding of visible processes and objects are thus dependent on the viewer’s hermeneutic experience and competence.

The editors introduce and define these terms in order to make an interdisciplinary dialogue possible. Each of the essays asks in which ways invisible objects, processes, and ideas are processed within their individual cultural contexts into something comprehensible and visible. The essays are further united around their focus on visual objects, events, and processes that express power, lordship, and/or identity.

Christina Lechtermann’s insightful essay on the Prose Lancelot makes the point that the process of understanding visual cues is often portrayed as problematic in medieval literature; something can be visual and yet invisible if it is not perceived and understood. Lechtermann reveals that Lancelot makes use of many kinds of visual aids, and leaves numerous visual traces, and yet he is invisible to the court and must “for that reason be sought, although he appears at every tournament” (31). In the pursuit of Lancelot, the figures in the text and its audience must identify and follow his traces and learn to interpret these properly. Miriam Czock examines Carolingian attitudes towards the sacred space of the church, identifying a tension between the church’s holiness, established by ritual consecration, and the practical use of the space in non-liturgical contexts. The concept of visibility proposed by the editors is relevant in this context because, while the space was visually (by means of ritual) established as a sacred space, it was not always recognized as such. Instead, it was perceived (visibilisiert) as a space for both liturgical and non-liturgical uses. Lucas Burkhart’s...