Islands and Cities in Medieval Myth, Literature, and History

The ‘spatial turn’ in recent discussions about the relevance of ‘space’ and ‘place’ in medieval literature inspired the editors to transcend the boundaries of Europe and extend their investigation to Pre-Columbian America and the Far East. The results are surprising. Since cultures across the world associated both islands and walled cities with notions of paradise, the investigations reveal striking commonalities, e.g., between Dante’s Island of the Purgatorio and the island of Japan. In addition, several contributions outline visitor’s reactions to and influence on medieval cities with similar results (Kyoto, Paris, Nuremberg). Thus the combination of interspatial approaches opens up unusual perspectives on bounded space (whether by walls or by water) in world literatures and history.

Andrea Grafetstätter; PhD 2004; Lecturer of Medieval German Language and Literature at the University of Bamberg (Germany); Max Kade-professorship (2009) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (USA); organizer of a medieval theatre group with regular performances. Sieglinde Hartmann; PhD 1980; Professor of Medieval German Literature at the University of Würzburg (Germany), and at the Slavic University Baku (Azerbaijan); President of the Oswald von Wolkenstein-Gesellschaft; editor-in-chief of the Jahrbuch der Oswald von Wolkenstein-Gesellschaft. James Ogier; PhD 1981; Professor of German at the Roanoke College in Salem, Virginia (USA); specialties include medieval Scandinavian literature and Maya Studies.

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