Germans and Poles in the Middle Ages: The Perception of the ‘Other’ and the Presence of Mutual Ethnic Stereotypes in Medieval Narrative Sources, ed. Andrzej Pleszczyński and Grischa Vercamer. Explorations in Medieval Culture, 16. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2021, xxv, 433 pp., 2 maps.

Abstract

Abstract Much too often we use the modern term ‘the Other’ with respect only to monsters or non-white people in the Middle Ages. ‘Others,’ however, often appear and determine our epistemological framework both then and today. Only difference, as Ferdinand de Saussure had taught us, makes it possible to comprehend the value of an entity in contrast to the context. Similarly, the perception of other people, especially neighbors (Germans vs. Poles, vs. Czechs, Danes, etc.) mattered greatly already in the Middle Ages, which was the topic of a conference held in Warsaw from May 24 to 27, 2018. The present volume contains the proceedings, which are divided into five parts: 1. zones of contacts across Europe; 2. Polish views of Germans; 3. German views of Poles; 4. regional zones of contacts between Poles and Germans; and 5. German-Polish stereotypes in modern times as a counter-image to the medieval conditions.