Medieval Things: Agency, Materiality, and Narratives of Objects in Medieval German Literature and Beyond by Bettina Bildhauer (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Medieval Things: Agency, Materiality, and Narratives of Objects in Medieval German Literature and Beyond by Bettina Bildhauer Albrecht Classen Bettina Bildhauer. Medieval Things: Agency, Materiality, and Narratives of Objects in Medieval German Literature and Beyond. Interventions: New Studies in Medieval Literature. Columbus, OH: The Ohio State UP, 2020, 223 p. Thing theory has arrived in Medieval Studies. The agency of objects, that is, material things, discussed in recent years by modern theorists, has now also been recognized by medievalists. Bettina Bildhauer demonstrates how medieval poets conveyed a sense of this agency in objects such as armor, clothes, jewelry, nets, coins, rings, and, maybe most importantly, the Grail (Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival) and the treasure, or hoard (Nibelungenlied). One central object, however, is curiously left out, the sword (and related weapons), disregarding here three brief remarks, although swords sort of sing, change colors, act on their own, and contribute essentially to the hero's qualities, as I argue in a forthcoming article ("Symbolic Significance of the Sword in the Hero's Hand," Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik, 2020). Bildhauer profiles the distinctiveness of her study by emphasizing that it deals with medieval examples in contrast to modern investigations of things, that it does not develop an interpretive model imposing itself on the texts, and that it moves away from the domineering Anglophone world by introducing medieval German literature seen through the lens of thing theory. Ironically, her attempt to transgress the traditional focus of literary analysis along national and linguistic lines by way of dealing with Middle High German narratives only leads right back to the very same national concept. Only if she had endeavored to combine her particular literary examples with those from across medieval Europe would she have lived up to her own claim in this regard. Fortunately, in the later section of the book she also engages briefly with some Arabic and Sanscrit texts to compare to [End Page 221] her German narratives, but only to highlight some similarities in motifs or themes. The author correctly emphasizes the significant agency of things as medieval poets presented them in many different contexts, both heroic and courtly, and in early modern plays (Hans Sachs). She highlights, above all, the great significance of shining colors and lights, but it remains unclear why there would be a "non-fetishistic agency" (18) in the shine since those blazing objects do not do anything and have no 'individuality,' as swords or rings appear to have. Bildhauer examines Wirnt of Grafenberg's Wigalois (ca. 1210) as one of the best examples for this fascination with shine or glamour; then she introduces Herzog Ernst (ms. B, ca. 1220, not 1210), and compares both works with similar cases in the Arabian 1001 Nights (not: 101 Nights) and Heinrich von dem Türlin's Diu Crône (ca. 1290). In each case, the analysis could have been deepened, especially because there are direct connections between the described objects and the protagonist's behavior. Chapter two introduces objects such as nets and other fabrics which carry significant meaning in Heinrich von Veldeke's Eneit (ca. 1170), Der Stricker's Daniel von dem Blühenden Tal (ca. 1240), Ulrich von Liechtenstein's Frauendienst (ca. 1260), and Ulrich von dem Türlin's Willehalm (ca. 1250/60). Bildhauer also examines examples from the Kaiserchronik and introduces comparable elements in the famous Kalila and Dimna tradition. Moreover, there are valuable comments about nets in Books of Hours, though the idea of "the thing" is then somewhat lost out of sight. The question would be when and how those nets gain a status of independence on their own, or whether they are nothing but tools in the hands of the human actors. In the next chapter, Bildhauer focuses on narratives created as it-biographies, with coins, for instance, talking to a human being (Hans Sachs, 1494-1576), or a sacred robe, as in the Goliardic epic, Orendel (late twelfth century; hence, an odd chronology in the development of the argument). However, this robe does not function the same way as Sachs's coin, whereas a comparison with Parzival's red armor in Wolfram von Eschenbach's eponymous romance or...