Change (lyric)
The term change refers to a group of medieval lyric texts by different authors. Characteristic for the change as a subtype of the Minne song is the juxtaposition of monological male and female stanzas.
About the generic term
The change is not a clearly defined genre of medieval poetry . Genera are to be understood “as groups or historical families. As such, they cannot […] be defined, but only historically determined, delimited and described. ”(Jauss: Alterity and Modernity of Medieval Literature , p. 330). An adequate definition seems problematic, as the variants of the genre definition in the specialist literature show. Although the monologue is considered a constitutive feature of the change, there is strangely disagreement among researchers about what should be called a monologue and where the limits of the generic name lie. Due to these terminological problems, it should be briefly explained how the generic term is used in the following: The generic term Wechsel cannot be placed at the level of the genres Minnesang , Spruchdichtung or Courtly novel . It must be understood in terms of sub-genre / song type, linguistically it is to be described as a text type and thus also to be defined via its communicative performance. The change is one of the subtypes of the high medieval minne song, along with an advertising song, women's monologue and dialogue song .
Definition and development
In its basic form, the alternation has two trophies, but it is often varied and expanded. Not only the number of stanzas, but also the distribution of roles is not strictly defined. There are at least two speakers: knight and lady. Each utterance includes at least one entire stanza . This criterion delimits simple monologues and z. Sometimes also dialogic speaker changes depend on the change. The given people result in female and male stanzas. Modifications and extensions are possible. The second structural feature of the change is the monological speech posture. In terms of content, the representation of (love) feelings is usually determined. The individual stanzas not only agree in metrical construction, but also show a correspondence in subject matter and situation.
The term “ain Wechsell” is found for the first time in the Neidhart manuscript c , but here denotes what are known as “playmate conversations” and mother-daughter conversations, in this case dialogue songs. The dialogue or conversation song can be found more and more in the 13th century, i.e. precisely at the time when the change in literary history disappears. Whether the genre of change developed in the direction of dialogue song, or whether change and conversation song can already be observed in the early phase is controversial.
Even in the late phase of the change, its monologicism remains constitutive, mock dialogical statements on a structural level (inquit, apostrophe) are rare. In the late Middle Ages, competition increased due to the emergence of new song types and genres, which also influenced the genre Wechsel. For the monological structure, a problem arises from the change in the genre. The action can no longer remain static and the situation no longer abstract. Embedding in concrete situations is only seldom, e.g. B. through the crusade theme, possible; a further development in the sense of a dramatization is made more difficult. Walther von der Vogelweide's alternations are mostly strictly monological, with the exception of L 70.22, which is very close to the limit of dialogue . Walther's strophic dialogue song also appears. By adopting this structural feature of the change to the genre of the conversational song, there is a transition to dialogue and a genre contamination (but no linear development from the change to the dialogue song).
The alternating monologue and dialogue
Monologicity is the central point of every definition of the genre change itself. Mock dialogical speech, e.g. through the appearance of a messenger, raises questions of genre. Monological dialogue songs also move in the peripheral area of many attempts at definition. If you understand the monologue as a self-talk, the direct address and forms of the 2nd person Sg. Should be excluded. Dialogic features can appear within the monologue and call into question the monological attitude:
The internal communication system can be broken by the singer addressing the audience directly. Even where inquit formulas are used, which turn a given speech into a report and, due to these tendencies in the epization of Minnesian poetry, also touch the boundaries of fictionality , the speaking attitude is no longer purely monological.
The singer can also address a real or fictional person ( apostrophes ); then forms of the 2nd person appear. Sg., Which after some change definitions would already be genre-breaking, especially if the beloved himself or a messenger is addressed. Dialogic speaking is not necessarily defined by the presence of a counterpart, but by his / her utterance, which refers directly to what has been said before (counter-speech) and only then becomes genre-differentiating. If the other person remains silent, there is no dialogical speech situation.
The dialogue itself is characterized by the contradiction between two or more speakers, opinions or points of view; in this way a discourse is presented. The monologue, on the other hand, represents a single point of view, emotions or reflections. The monological speech posture is already given situationally through the temporal or spatial separation of the ministers. By conveying emotional values, the monologue has an affective function (instead of a discursive one).
The dialogue is an imitation of a conversation situation (based on a real model), forms of the 2nd person Sg. Occur naturally. In the dialogue, time and space are not arbitrary as in the monologue, the personal speech is always diachronous. Even when a narrator appears who creates a time gap between the individual utterances, time and action always run linearly. The monological alternating stanzas are precisely defined by the temporal and / or spatial distance, although simultaneity (due to the relative autonomy of the utterances) cannot be ruled out.
Another distinguishing feature goes back to the relationship between the utterances. The dialogue only gains meaning through the direct referential reference to the resulting replica. The monologue, on the other hand, shows relatively autonomous, mutually independent statements, a direct reference is unnecessary. Although each stanza represents an independent unit and utterance by itself, text coherence cannot be dispensed with.
Messenger songs
A special and problematic form of change is the messenger song. The messenger , who can act as a mediator between the minnends, can speak or be addressed himself, receive or transmit an order, or only appear as a motive ( Der von Kürenberg MF 10.9 “Aller wîbe wunne, diu gêt noch megetîn. / when I send the dear messengers to you, […] ”). In the research literature, this repeatedly provides an opportunity to question the generic description change . The appearance of a messenger (and thus the messenger stanza) does not contradict the principle of strophic roles. In the so-called messenger song, the messenger does not have to speak for himself either; he acts as a medium of the message by being addressed and instructed what he should communicate to the actual addressee of the message. In this helper role, the messenger functions as a stylization of the distance between the minnends. If the communication with the messenger is also supplemented by a statement from the other Minne partner, there is an extended change.
example
Dietmar von Aist: Ûf der linden above (MF 34,3)
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Middle High German Ûf the linden above dâ sanc a kleinez vogellîn.
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translation Up on the linden tree a little bird was singing. |
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The lyrical subject of the first stanza is not identical to that of the second, the role assignment is clear: in the first stanza a male speaker speaks, this only becomes clear in 1.4. The second stanza is a female stanza, which results from the pronoun er (2,2), the preceding dear poor can be those of the loved one. Motifs of the natural entrance (linden, bird, roses) indicate summer and cause the lyrical self of the first stanza to remember (at least) one past love experience. It behaves in accordance with its role cliché: The man reflects on the past love event with a distant look. He does not complain, feels no longing or suffering, the memory is linked to positive motives ( vogellîn, rosebluomen ). These motifs recur in stressed sensual vocabulary of woman stanza, but they are here the painful absence of the beloved and thus the short [s] vröide and Jamer opposite. The standardized role behavior is also shown in this stanza: The woman is in the position of suffering, she does not perceive the memory as happy, but dramatically exaggerates the temporal distance ( wol tûsent jâr ), which in the male stanza only through the ê (1, 3) is indicated. The theme of their innocence is interesting, this can be seen as a reproach to the lover, because the man is neither marked as equally innocent, nor are reasons for his absence mentioned, a crusade motif or the motives of the huote und merkaere would be conceivable . This does not seem to meet the expectations of the woman, which were certainly aimed at a mutual love relationship.
The situation opens up to the audience differently: By knowing the previous monologue, the one-sidedness of the feeling of love can be excluded and the contradiction between the two stanzas (which exists on the level of representation) can be resolved.
The role of the singer is also noticeable here: The text attributed to Dietmar von Aist begins with the image of a bird sitting on a linden tree and singing; Transferring this image to the singer is not far off, Dietmar "vom Ast" sings a scene in which he only participates as a distant observer. Something comparable can also be found in Walther von der Vogelweide (L 39.11); there, too, it is only "a small vogellîn", which despite all its secrecy can attest to the event.
Genre
The text is considered a lyric text, the two stanzas of the text have an identical metrical structure . They also agree on the subject matter. Motif responses from vogellîn and bluomen show the coherence of the text. The alternation appears here in its two-trophic basic form. The stanzas are divided into male and female stanzas , the utterance of each speaker covers the entire stanza. This also fulfills the two structural features of a monologue series (according to Köhler). Concerning the monologicity: the speaker's loneliness is given. There are no (pseudo) dialogical ways of speaking, no forms of the 2nd person. Sg. (Apostrophes), no salutation, no inquit formulas, no further instances. There is also no dialogue between the existing people, the man's “speech” remains unheard and thus does not lead to a “counter-speech” by the woman, but to an autonomous utterance, which cannot be clearly timed. Ultimately, the spatial distance, the “avoidance” of the partner, and the different perspectives on the past love event are also an indication of their monological speech posture.
In terms of content, the text also corresponds to the exchange genre. Feelings of love are portrayed, the different conceptions of the characters - the complaint about a lack of response and the happy memory - are opposed to each other. The fictional space is also open to the audience due to the monologicity; the contradiction raised in the internal communication system can only be resolved in the external, namely through the recipient, so the non-mimetic form also becomes clear. The conveyance of emotional values and thus the affective function is indubitable, but the differentiated experience and sensation has an almost discursive character; However, the text is not discursive because, as already shown, there is no direct referential relationship between the individual utterances / stanzas.
literature
- Adolar Angermann: The change in Middle High German poetry. Marburg 1910, (Marburg, University, dissertation, 1908).
- Manuel Braun: The artificiality of the dialogical song. In: Marina Münkler (ed.): Aspects of a language of love. Forms of dialogic in minnesang (= publications for the magazine for German studies . NF vol. 21). Lang, Bern et al. 2011, ISBN 978-3-03911-783-3 , pp. 19-34.
- Hans Robert Jauss : Theory of the genres and literature of the Middle Ages. In: Hans Robert Jauss: Alterity and modernity of medieval literature. Collected essays 1956-1976. Fink, Munich 1977, ISBN 3-7705-1488-2 , pp. 327-358 .
- Jens Köhler: The change. Text structure and function of a Middle High German song genre. Winter, Heidelberg 1997, ISBN 3-8253-0542-2 (also: Kiel, Universität, Dissertation, 1996).
- The spring of minstrels. Volume 1: Texts. Using the editions of Karl Lachmann and Moriz Haupt , Friedrich Vogt and Carl von Kraus , edited by Hugo Moser and Helmut Tervooren . 38th, revised edition, with an appendix: The Budapest and Kremsmünster fragment. Hirzel, Stuttgart 1988, ISBN 3-7776-0448-8 .
- Rüdiger Schnell : Woman's song, man's song and change in German minnesang. Considerations on 'gender' and genre. In: Journal for German Antiquity and German Literature . Vol. 128, H. 2, 1999, pp. 127-184, JSTOR 20659048 .
- Manfred Günter Scholz: On the style and typology of the Middle High German change. In: Yearbook for International German Studies. Vol. 21, 1, 1989, ISSN 0449-5233 , pp. 60-92.
Individual evidence
- ↑ z. B .: Got give ir iemer guoten tac