Author
Coxon; Sebastian
Year
2021
Publisher
UCL Press
Language
English
Pages
30
ISBN
978-1-78735-222-3
Last Update
10-Jul-2025
Keywords
Language & Literature ; European Studies ; History
Most fundamentally, this book is concerned with the role played by references to beards in medieval German literature, and with the different forms and functions such references take in a variety of text types and vernacular literary traditions as they evolved from the mid-twelfth to the early sixteenth centuries. Such an investigation derives its legitimacy from the peculiar (and pretty much universal) cultural-historical significance of the beard as a – if not the – pre-eminent ‘natural’ symbol of masculinity. From a literary-historical point of view it seems pertinent to enquire how this notion translated into literary practice. Two inextricably linked...
