Minding the Gaps

Abstract

It is well documented that European medieval culture liked to surround itself with the figures of Arthurian romance; murals, tapestries, and ivories are just some of the ways in which familiar figures or scenes found their way into visual form. The murals of Hartmann von Aue’s Iwein at the castle of Rodenegg in northern Italy are considered to be the oldest secular murals in northern Europe. In this chapter, I explore the German Arthurian tradition and the effects of spatial practices on the representation of gender in the remediation of medieval literary narratives. I locate gender topology at the intersection of spatial practice and imagination. The murals of Rodenegg (Iwein), the Haus zur Kunkel (Parzival), and Runkelstein are spectacular remediations of German Arthurian narratives that illustrate how visual adaptations exploit temporal and spatial gaps, creating new narratives in homeomorphic balance with their predecessors. Gender configurations twist and bend—sometimes more, sometimes less—in the process, augmented by each respective beholder’s share and each audience’s gaze. Each remediation reflects the values of the community that inhabits it.