Literaturgeschichte als Geschehenes und Geschichtetes. Oder: Der lange Schatten des Hildebrandslieds

Elnaggar, Diaa

doi:10.21608/tjhss.2023.282649

Literaturgeschichte als Geschehenes und Geschichtetes. Oder: Der lange Schatten des Hildebrandslieds

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Diaa Elnaggar

Ain Shams University

10.21608/tjhss.2023.282649

Abstract

: The subject of the present work is the Hildebrandslied, the only written, oldest monument of Germanic literature, probably from the 8th century. The Song narrates a meeting between a father, a great war master named "Hildebrand" and his son, named "Hadubrand", who has become a general in the enemy camp and does not recognize his father. The situation is becoming more critical. The son insults the father, who has to take up arms against his own son. Here the song ends. One can only speculate as to who kills the other. This thesis deals with the importance of conveying a literary history that presents literary works in such a way that what happened and what is told in them becomes visible and how they have an impact up to the present day. Using the example of this heroic song, the students should be able to see how important literary works are for their professional career, in order to understand how the Germans became what they are now. The present work also shows how in the late Middle Ages, under the influence of Christianity, a version of the song with a conciliatory ending, the "younger Song of Hildebrand", developed and how the song was used for propaganda purposes during the Nazi era and how a GDR band used it, written in 1980 at a time of political tension between the two German states. Then, through a scenic play with the pen of the author of the present work, the students are to be given a literary history that aims to be understood as a continuum of history and its layers.

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