Gunpowder, Masculinity, and Warfare in German Texts, 1400–1700, by Patrick Brugh

Abstract

In this book, Patrick Brugh traces the rise of gunpowder weapons as it was reflected in early modern German texts. The period 1400 to 1700 coincides with the ever-broader deployment of such weaponry on the battlefields of Europe, which was part of what has been called the Military Revolution. Brugh includes satirical epics, military treatises, books of war, broadsheets, war novels, plays and even poetry in his analysis, not shying away from discussing visual elements in these texts. On this broad source basis, resulting from his cultural-historical approach, Brugh thoroughly explores how gunpowder weapons were discussed in various social or political groups, that is, the different implied audiences of these sources. Brugh highlights the ambiguity of gunpowder weaponry in its impact on ideas of gender (mostly masculinity), morality of warfare and aesthetics within literary representation. In roughly chronological order, he discusses Heinrich Wittenwiler’s Der Ring (1409/10), a satirical Bauernschwank (‘peasant...