Medieval Adolescence: The Claims of History and the Silence of German Narrative

Abstract

For nearly twenty-five years medievalists have been raising their voices to defend Middle Ages against Philippe Aries and his claim that the idea of childhood did not exist in society.' From Urban Holmes2 to Shulamith Shahar3 scholars have marshaled what evidence they could to counter negative stereotype4 of family first proposed by AriRs, then seconded by Jacques Le Goff and others,5 and to demonstrate that medieval society knew age of childhood.6 Exhilarated by ease with which they were able to restore childhood to Middle Ages, a number of writers have gone on to challenge a less famous claim of AriRs, that before