The Marvellous as a Configuration of Knowledge in Medieval Literature

The project examines literary portrayals of cultural and historical alterity in German medieval texts from the twelfth century to the early modern period. These depictions incorporate elements of knowledge of both European and non-European provenance that are re-contextualised in terms of mediality and genre as well as related to each other and aestheticized. The project uses the term ‘the marvellous’ to denote the specific literary form resulting from these processes. In considering this specific literary form as a category of knowledge, the project provides a novel way of interpreting the term.

A list of publications and events organized by the project can be accessed on the German CRC 980 website.