Examining medieval German religious writing (verse and prose) and Dutch prose works, Annette Volfing suggests that the Daughter Zion allegory provides an excellent springboard for investigating key aspects of medieval religious and literary culture. She argues that the development of the allegory from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries marks the striving towards a greater sense of equality and affective reciprocity with the divine, within the context of an erotic union.
"The strength of the book depends partly on the fact that it draws attention to a body of largely unknown literary texts, and partly on the fact that its analysis involves the juxtaposition of genres normally considered in isolation. Above all, it provides a coherent overview of a theme of central importance to the history of Western spirituality."--BOOK JACKET.
This monograph offers a translation and literary commentary on Heinrich von Mügeln's allegorical poem „Der meide kranz“, based on Jahr's edition. The translation aims to clarify the meaning of specific passages and broaden the poem's accessibility to English-speaking readers. The commentary has three main objectives: first, to elucidate the content of technical passages, such as the liberal arts' speeches and the discourse on the Trinity, while examining Mügeln's intellectual vocabulary; second, to provide stylistic and thematic parallels from Latin and German literature, highlighting various types of paradigmatic material; and third, to offer an overall interpretation of the poem. This interpretation involves reassessing the structure, focusing on the narratorial figure's role, and presenting an alternative view to Jahr's unfavourable opinion regarding the poem's unity and cohesion. It will be argued that the allegory's sections are unified by the theme contrasting God's greatness with his creatures' limitations, termed 'the humilitation of Natura'. This concept addresses the apparent shift from Mary to Natura during the poem. The commentary employs rhetorical analysis patterns suggested by Stackmann and Kibelka's approach of identifying intellectual Denkstile rather than specific sources, while also examining the significance of models from Latin philosophical allegory and the Fürstenspiegel tradition.
