Minnerede, Roman und "historia"

Johann von Wurzburg's "Wilhelm von Osterreich" is a late representative of the courtly romance. Here it receives attention for the first time against the background of its literary-historical context and in terms of its complexity as a genre hybrid. At a time when didactic minor epic poetry, allegory, and the historicalization of courtly literature were all coming to a head, Johann interwove and set off against one another motivic strains and structural elements of Minnerede, romance, and historiography. The author sets out to trace exactly how he did this and also to show the lengths gone to in the reception of his work in the 14th to 16th centuries, from the manuscript scribes all the way to Hans Sachs, to impose a more unified character on the work. The annex contains a hitherto unedited Minneklage (love plaint)."