Der Zufall als narrative Strategie im hochhoefischen Roman und in fruehneuhochdeutscher Epik (German text, Hartmann von Aue, Wolfram von Eschenbach, Gottfried von Strassburg, Thuering von Ringoltingen)

This thesis aims to show how coincidence works as a narrative strategy in Middle High German and Early New High German narrative. Chapter 1 opens with a definition of coincidence, and an examination of its philosophical background, and then discusses its implications for the selected literature.; Chapters 2 and 3 demonstrate the development of narrative coincidence from a structure-bound usage to a more deliberate deployment, transgressing and even questioning coherent and meaningful patterns of narrative. Hartmann von Aue's Iwein is constructed according to the scheme of âventiure as established for chivalric romance by Chrétien de Troyes. With his Parzival, Wolfram von Eschenbach seeks to exceed the given pattern by making the ways of his hero(es) more complicated and confusing. Gottfried von Straßburg, in turn, constructs his Tristan as a game and deploys the notion “von âventiure” (“by chance”) to validate the absolute but forbidden love between Tristan and Isold, challenging literary traditions, societal norms, and religious understanding.; In early New High German prose (chapter 3), represented in Thüring's Melusine and the anonymous Fortunatus, traditional patterns are taken up and worked into the text while new forms are established. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...