In this CENES Extra-Salon, visiting Professor Astrid Lembke talks about a Medieval Yiddish Romance.
Fighting giants and dragons, taking advice from shape-shifters, rescuing damsels in distress? This is the kind of plot Medieval German connoisseurs of classical courtly novels cherished. Yet, not only them: Probably in the 15th century, a Jewish audience was presented with a Yiddish adaptation of Wirnt von Grafenberg’s Arthurian romance Wigalois from the first quarter of the 13th century.
This reworking of a refined and pious work of courtly literature, entitled Widuwilt, enjoyed a remarkable career in manuscripts as well as print editions and was even re-adapted into German once more in the Enlightenment era. In her talk, Astrid Lembke (University of Mannheim) will describe the adventures and challenges she and her colleagues faced while transcribing, investigating, and editing this funny and rather captivating witness to the early modern encounter between German and Yiddish cultural practices and traditions.
Astrid Lembke is Professor of Medieval German Literature at the University of Mannheim’s German Studies Department. She specializes in German courtly romances of the 12th and 13th centuries as well as in Yiddish literature of the late middle ages and the early modern era. She has published books on pre-modern Jewish tales about mortal men marrying she-demons and on fictional inscriptions in medieval courtly texts such as Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival. During her stay in Vancouver and at UBC, Astrid is striving to finish her critical edition of Widuwilt.
How to Attend:
Join CENES for this in-person event in Buchanan Tower 997 on April 25th at 3:30pm. Coffee and pastries will be served!
