Classen, 'Jungfraeulichkeit in Versepen des 12. und 13. Jahrhunderts', Bryn Mawr Medieval Review 9601
URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/bmmr/bmmr-9601-classen-jungfraeulichkeit
@@@@96.1.2, Mueller, Jungfraeulichkeit in Versepen
Maria E. Mueller, Jungfraeulichkeit in Versepen des 12. und
13. Jahrhunderts. Forschungen zur Geschichte der aelteren
deutschen Literatur, 17. Munich: Fink, 1995. 395 pp. ISBN 3-7705-3000-4.
Reviewed by: Albrecht Classen, University of Arizona
The concept of virginity constitutes one of the cornerstones of Western
Christianity, as a huge number of theological and literary texts and many
other cultural documents demonstrate. Virginity is the renunciation of the
world and the deliberate turn away toward the call of God. Virginity
represents, therefore, one of the highest ideals of the Christian Church.
But seen from the point of view of secular society, it constitutes a
challenge of profoundest dimensions and endangers the continuation of
humanity at large. Sexuality serves to secure progeny, and as such would
not be condemnable at all. From a religious perspective, however, service
for God in the role of a cleric, monk or nun, or even as a beguine was
always preferable to any other s tation in life (see 1 Corinthian 7).
Maria E. Mueller, in her "Habilitationsschrift" submitted to the Freie
Universitaet Berlin in Summer of 1992, which is a qualifying dissertation
for the promotion to Associate Professor with tenure, presents a critical
discussion of religious and secular Middle High German texts composed in
the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in which the concept of virginity is
discussed and examined from many different angles. Some of these texts
are well known among medievalists even outside of Germanistics, but others
are of a rather obscure nature and have never received full attention by
scholarship. Whether the new interest is justified because Mueller
succeeds through her interpretation to make these texts interesting and
meaningful again, is hard to determine. But they all provide significant
messages with respect to the notion of virginity and its role within
courtly society.
The study is divided into two major sections, first a treatment of
"legendenepische Texte" (religious tales), then followed by an examination
of courtly narratives. The first section is divided into a chapter
focusing on the relevance of the monastery for the preservation of
virginity, and one focusing on the role of marriage in the struggle for
virginity.
The second part is also divided into two sections, the first highlighting
virgins in courtly epics modeled after classical-antique tales, and the
second examining virgins within medieval tales not influenced by antique
narratives.
In the first section of the book, Mueller discusses religious tales which
are of minor importance in the history of German literature. These are:
Priest Arnolt's legend of the holy Juliana from the middle of the twelfth
century, composed in the area of Munich and preserved in a manuscript from
a monastery in Upper Styria; Brother Hermann's Leben der Graefin
Iolande von Vianden, composed shortly after 1283 in the area of
Luxembourg; and Hugo von Langenstein's Martina, dated 1293, which
is considered to be one of the longest legendary tales from the Middle
Ages.
In her intermediate summary Mueller concludes that these tales succeed in
developing the ideal of virginity through projection mechanisms--whatever
that term might mean--and strategies supporting the admiration of the
heroines (118). The morality and ethics of these women are tested through
challenges of their resistance to sexuality and their abilities to
overcome their own physical desires. The virgin is the reenactment of the
Virgin Mary, and is also the contrastive image to Eve. This is a very
simplistic concept and does not reveal any new insights into the narrative
and religious patterns, but the author resorts to an abstract language
which insinuates innovative conclusions. For those who can read German,
here is a typical example: "es begegnet stereotyp die Aufspaltung des
Frauenbilds, das in admirativen oder perhorreszierenden Mustern der
projektiven Absicherung des maennlichen Selbstbilds dient" (120;
stereotypically we encounter the duplication of the female image which
serves in its admirable and horrifying models the projective protection of
the male self image). It would have been much more interesting to explore
the maso-sadistic tendencies in Hugo von Langenstein's texts where he
describes Martina's martyrdom in extremely explicit language, but then
Mueller would have had to enter a whole discussion with Carolyn Bynum's
various seminal studies on the body and mystical visions. She is aware of
her scholarship, but unfortunately, at least in this case, does not engage
in a critical analysis.
Instead Mueller perceives in her texts ideological documents with
which the life in a convent was to be idealized because only there the
concept of virginity could be fully safeguarded.
The conflict between the concept of marriage and virginity comes to the
fore in the following tales: the pre-courtly Munich Oswald, the
parallel Vienna Oswald, and Orendel. Mueller observes the
disappearance of sexual traumas and the fear of the body. Instead the
significance of chastity is played out to a much larger extent within the
realm of marriage and rulership. Another example is the legendary tale
Kaiser und Kaiserin by Ebernand von Erfurt, composed sometime
between 1203 and 1240, where virginity also gains the upper hand within
marriage, this time, however, as the result of the husband Heinrich's
desires to stay virginal.
The second section focuses on the "classical" courtly literature, which
combine various literary traditions that all show the common denominator
of the ideal of virginity. Mueller first takes into account the following
texts as examples for prophetic, virginal figures who challenge the
protagonist's: Heinrich von Veldeke's Eneas with its Sibyl figures,
Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival with its liminal figure Kundrie,
and Herbort von Fritzlar's Liet von Troye. The other role analyzed
in this section is the Amazon who also pursues a virginal lifestyle, such
as in Heinrich von Veldeke' Eneas, in Herbort's Troy poem, then
briefly in the Strassburger Alexander, and Rudolf von Ems'
Alexander. Not surprisingly, the Amazons are here integrated into
the courtly world and gain familiarity, but Mueller does not establish
really new interpretations, and in a way simply paraphrases the content of
the various stories, which is not the only time this happens in this
study.
The problem becomes method in the last section, although the author
certainly manages to cover the relevant scholarship for each individual
text. Here she explores the relevance of virginity within the courtly
love discourse, and examines the following texts: Hartmann von Aue's
Der arme Heinrich, Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival and
Titurel, and Albrecht's (von Scharfenberg?) Juengere
Titurel. The virginal figures such as the nameless peasant girl in
Hartmann's poem and Sigune in Wolfram's and Albrecht's narratives invite
many different interpretations, and many of those are certainly skillfully
pursued in Mueller's examination. There is also no question that these
almost saintly women play a major role influencing the male protagonists,
but many of the author's conclusions do not break new ground, and instead
rephrase, as sophisticated as they might sound, rather traditional
perspectives. Mueller argue s that the concept of virginity is developed
within the framework of a new self-referentiality; bodily vulnerability
and preservation of one's innocence gain major attention (of course! That
is the decisive aspect of a virgin decided to dedicate herself to God); a
heightened awareness of the body; the invincibility of the virgins and
largely an absence of true temptations (343). Some catchy phrases such as
"spiritual sexualization of female virginity" and "spiritual
desexualization" (343) do not really make sense but indicate the trend of
Mueller's discourse--reaching untrodden ground by coining new phrases with
which a well-established state of knowledge is rediscovered.
It would have been important to stress more the difference between courtly
and urban projections of literary virginality and to examine the subtle
but significant opposition between these two social spheres. The
conclusion mentions this opposition, but in the main body it is not fully
developed and here comes as a surprise.
In one point Mueller is absolutely correct: virginality represents a
liminal experience, a radical challenge of secular society, and the
exploration of new forms of human existence in close proximity with God
(346).
Overall, Mueller presents the results of hard work and industrious
compilation of scholarly interpretations. She is also to be praised for
her untiring efforts to deal with often rather boring and therefore
largely ignored texts. But she buries the most interesting observations
under a pile of deliberately abstract and vague phraseology which make it
difficult to identify in how far she opens closed or open doors in her
examination of virginity as a theme. To be sure, her topic receives
extensive attention, but the conclusions are somewhat short of a new
understanding both of the texts under investgation and of the virginal
figures presented therein.