Exploring gender role construction and conflicts in Niebelungenlied, the 13th Century German warrior epic

Type :

Term papers

Pages :

10 pages

Format :

.doc

Published date :

04/27/2009

Category :

History & geography

Sub category :

Medieval history

Oboulo.com selection criteria

$ 19.95 Add to cart

Summary :

Introductuon
The Niebelungenlied
1. The two parts to the text
2. Feminist reading applied to the material
3. The feudal order in the late Roman period
4. The emergence of a literature of female mystics
A key problem that Siegfried faces
A possible feminist reading of the oath, the betrayal of Siegfried
The distrust of women in general as a moral in the story
Niebelungenlied as a very dark text
The theories of Pafenberg
Conclusion
References

Abstract

The position of women in the medieval german state in the 13th century is a complex one when viewed through an historical lens that looks at gender and sex (using feminist theory) to understand this past era. What are the factors that shaped gender dynamics, as trends from the end of the Roman period to the time when the epic the niebelungenlied was composed? Who was its audience? What ideology or contradictory impulses does it contain? As Halsall (2004) contends, noting feminist scholarship in this area, "Julia Smith has argued that writing a more gendered history of the period from around 300 to 800 involves abandoning "empire-wide grand narratives" in favor of "a point of view . . . that is domestic and . . .often fragmented." (Halsall: 17) The niebelungenlied, with a date of composition around the beginning of the 13th century, can be found today in English translation in both verse and prose forms. This paper, working from an English prose translation of the epic, will focus on the role(s) of women in early medieval german culture.