Content area
Full Text
Ulrike Draesner, Wege durch erzählte Welten. Intertextuelle Verweise als Mittel der Bedeutungskonstitution in Wolframs 'Parzival', Mikrokosmos 36 (Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 1993). 494 pp. ISBN 3-631-45525-9. DM 108.
There has been no shortage of work on Wolfram's allusions to contemporary authors: in general terms (B. Schirok), to Eilhart (H. Eggers), to Veldeke 0. F. Poag), to Hartmann (R. Schnell, C. Wand) and to Walther (M. G. Schob:). Of the book under review, originally a Munich dissertation, it can be said that it passes beyond its predecessors in two respects.
F i ist, it both recognizes the need to apply a modern method to a medieval example, and tests how far this is possible by devoting a good third of its compass to the theory of intertextuality in its relevance to medieval studies. The welcome result is not merely an illumination of Par%ival from recent intertextual discussion, but also a contribution to this discussion from the point of view of an outstandingly important medieval example. Where Wolfram's literary allusions have in the past been treated in terms of sources, literary influence and relative chronology, Ulrike Draesner concentrates on the dialogue between Wolfram's work and other texts and on the triangular relationship between author, text and recipients, of whom (whether as readers or listeners) high demands in active cooperation with the author are made. In her theoretical review the author suggests why 'intertextuality' is more suited to medieval works than traditional concepts such as 'quotation' or 'allusion', not just as one term in place of others, but as a means of...