The Knowledge of Childhood in the German Middle Ages, 1100-1350 (The Middle Ages Series)

Winner of the 1994-95 MLA Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for studies in Germanic languages and literatures James A Schultz has brought a historiographic approach to nearly two hundred Middle High German texts—narrative, didactic, homiletic, legal, religious, and secular. He explores what they say about the nature of the child, the role of inherited and individual traits, the status of education, the remarkable number of disruptions these children suffered as they grew up, the rites of passage that mark coming of age, the various genres of childhood narratives, and the historical development of such narratives. The text tells stories in which abandonment, abduction, and other kinds of dislocation are commonplace, but in which children nevertheless come of age in precisely the place for which they are destined by birth. Childhood differs profoundly for males and females as it does for saintly and secular figures. Within a secular context, childhood enjoys a special status. It is shaped, elaborated, and turned into a luxury object that helps distinguish courtly culture and that anticipates more modern attitudes. . The Knowledge of Childhood in the German Middle Ages, 1100-1350 provides a wealth of information for students and scholars of medieval literature, medieval history, and cultural studies. Cover Title Page, Copyright Contents Acknowledgments Abbreviations On Notes, Translations, and Names 1. Zingerle's Rattle: History and the Knowledge of Childhood 2. Words: Defining the Terms of Childhood 3. Nature: The Determinations of Birth 4. Nurture: The Limits of Intervention 5. Relations: Attachment, Separation, and Strange Situations 6. Adulthood: Coming of Age or Growing Up 7. Genres: Different Children's Stories 8. History: Two-and-a-Half Centuries of Childhood 9. Obilot's Games: A Different Knowledge of Childhood Bibliography Index of Middle High German Children General Index