Kindheit und Adoleszenz in den deutschen Parzival- und Lancelot-Romanen: Hohes und spates Mittelalter

Anja RUSS, Kindheit und Adoleszenz in den deutschen Parzival- und Lancelot-Romanen: Hohes und spates Mittelalter (Stuttgart: Hirxel, 2000). 405 pp. ISBN 3-7776-1070-4. euro73.60.

This book is a slightly revised version of the author's doctoral dissertation, supervised by Uwe Rubcrg in Mainx, on representations of children and youth in five thirteenth- and fifteenth-century German romances on Parzival and Lancelot. The avowed aim of this monograph is to analyse passages on children in their own right as well as to set them in the context of the romance as a whole, and to establish contrasts and similarities between the different texts.

After a brief introduction with an overview of previous research on depictions of childhood in medieval German literature, Anja Russ launches into an extensive interpretative retelling...