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Formelhafte Sprache als gattungskonstituierendes Element in Michel Beheims Vlad-Ţepeş-Gedicht
(2010)
The 15th century medieval German poet Michel Beheim is a marginal (and in terms of his writing not very well thought of) figure in the realms of German literature. In his poetic oeuvre, a 1070 verses long poem about the Valachian nobleman and ruler Vlad Ţepeş, better known as the original Dracula, can be found. This poem will serve here as an example of late medieval literary achievements, typical for the literature of this century. A close analysis of its style will reveal certain poetological aspects, that are central to its structure of composition, but hitherto have not been closely investigated and revealed. These formal aspects include various instances of formulaic speech, such as double-formulae („men and women”, „the young and the old” etc.), formulaic episode endings („and he did many worse things” etc.), and others. The massed and purposeful application of these instances of formulaic speech leads to the conclusion, that these are part of the poetological framework which the author applied in order to fulfil the needs of a literature which was directed primarily to an auditory performance and served entertainment purposes mainly. The disclosure of these formulaic aspects in 15th century literature and its functional reinterpretation in a context of contemporary performance might help to re-evaluate the German literature of this not very well investigated and estimated century.
The German film Offset (2005) is one of an increasing number of films which for various reasons can be called intercultural films or intercultural cinema. This contribution, while pleading for a more extended use of the term “intercultural cinema”, aims to focus on some of those features present in movies of this “genre”. The chosen example Offset serves as a starting point : Especially the notions of different languages used in such films (“multilingual” film) and the different purposes they can serve will be highlighted; secondly, such aspects of interculturalism that become visible in the production of the film itself, and for the purpose of audience building, which also make use of intercultural aspects in the present example will be analyzed. The transcultural film analysis of this movie will also deal with and reveal stereotypes and clichés that are part of the German-Romanian culture clash which is depicted in Offset.
In the Brukenthal Museum in Sibiu the surviving pieces of the late Gothic altar retable from Großprobstdorf (Târnava) are preserved and partly exhibited. The two outer wing pieces of this retable show some remarkable features. The one depicting a scene of the martyrdom of Saint Sebastian is part of one of the most prominent traditions of medieval and post-medieval hagiography; this saint and depictions of him also play an important role in sacral art that forms a reaction on the Plague. The second retable depicts the nowadays less known motif of the martyrdom of Saint Achatius. It will be shown, that both retables can be connected to a contemporary outbreak of the Plague in Transilvania, and that it seems very probable that this ensemble forms a direct reaction and response to this outbreak of the Plague. Evidence is brought here in the form of contemporary pamphlets which make use of exactly the same ensemble of Sebastian and Achatius. In the second part of this contribution, the case of the “crypto-portraits” of Vlad the Impaler and the depiction belonging to this group on the Sebastian-retable of Großprobstdorf will be discussed and brought into context. An answer to the question whether we see a depiction of Vlad on this and the other crypto-portraits will be attempted.