Browsing by Department "German Language and Literature"

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    Auf neuen sprachwegen? : Rezeptions- und literaturkritische problematik anhand eines textes aus der deutschen immigrationsliteratur
    (1998) Van Ryneveld, Hannelore Elisabeth
    The emerging body of literature defined in German literary circles as Auslӓnderliteratur or during the seventies as Gastarbeiterliteratur, forms the field of this research. The authors are foreigners living in Germany who write in Germanbut for whom German is not their mother-tongue. This dissertation uses the definition"deutsche lmmigrationsliteratur'', with the understanding that an attempt to define a body of literature is inherently problematical and lends itself too easily to categorisation and prejudices. This, in terms of current thinking within the minority discourse, perpetuates "colonialism" within the context of language and literature.(What is meant by prejudices in this context is the thinking that these writings are primarily ethnographic documents with the obligatory exotic flavour, and therefore not to be taken seriously as literary texts. The historical analysis of the dissertation however shows, that while the lmmigrationsliteratur might have begun like that, it has moved quite a long way from that point.)The issues which the first part of the research wishes to address are as follows: What is meant by the. definition deutsche lmmigrationsliteratur: what are the historical perspectives and what is its current status in terms of, on the one hand, mainstream German literature and on the other hand, minority discourse. Why does this body of literature appear to be marginalised by German literary critics? Is the marginalisation linked to an unwillingness to take literature written by foreigners in German seriously, or is it as a result of a reluctance to confront the innovative and at times provocative use of the German language? Does this literature differ aesthetically from the mainstream German literature? The existence of a body of aesthetics is an area which to date has not been extensively researched nor documented, with the exception of work done mainly by AMODEO(1996), but also GRONEFELD (1996) and CHIELLINO (1995).
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    Das thema 'sprache' in den werken Bachmanns, Handkes und Wieners
    (1998) Strauss, Werner
    This study looks at the issue of language as a problematic means of portraying reality; an issue which characterized much of the work of post 1960 Austrian authors. The study concentrates on three authors, namely Ingeborg Bachmann, Peter Handke and Oswald Wiener. These three authors have been selected because, although all three draw on a common philosophical heritage, they have developed very different approaches to the problem of language in their works and because each author is representative of a particular period in the history of Austrian literature: Bachmann belonging to the group of writers associated with Paul Celan, Handke being part of the Graz group and Wiener as a member of the Vienna group The study commences by looking at the Austrian tradition of language scepticism, and considerable attention is given to the work of Karl Kraus, Fritz Mauthner and Ludwig Wittgenstein whose theories had a profound influence on all three authors. Each of the three writers chosen for this study is then considered separately. Attention is given to the background of each writer and to the influence of contemporary philosophical thought on his or her work. This is followed by an in-depth examination of selected works to determine how the writer concerned has approached the issue of language as a problematic means of communication. In conclusion the study compares and contrasts these different approaches to language and focuses on the issues emphasised by each author: Bachmann's view of how language functions as a constraint on female identity, Handke's view of the influence of language on society and Wiener's view of language as a means of manipulating the media and therefore society as a whole.
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    Der Begriff der Aura und einer Kunst ohne Aura im Werk von Walter Benjamin
    (1991) Loots, François; Horn, Peter
    Walter Benjamin formulated the concept of the aura in 1930 while experimenting with hashish. He describes an aura as the essence of an object that is only present in the act of perception. The aura changes from one occurrence of its perception to another. After the hashish trance, the perceiver can not remember the essence of an object - it's aura. The aura has an ambiguity, as well as various meanings in Benjamin's works: a) The aura is used in bourgeois art appreciation and criticism as a criteria to access art. Aura refers to subjective perception or ability, the paradigm of enlightenment. b) The aura is the unique perception of the essence or materiality of an object, one that cannot be represented by means of the signification of language. c) The aura exists in perception, therefore in the relationship between subject and object. d) Benjamin attributes perception of the aura as close, yet distanced in order to describe an auratic perception. e) An auratic perception exists outside of everyday life/routine and only as an autonomous artistic perception. f) An experience can be auratic in so far as an individual can understand the essence of his/her environment in relation to history. By postulating an auratic experience that grasps materiality in its totality Benjamin 4uestions the position of the subject in German Idealism, epitomised by Hegel's practical idea. At the same time Benjamin realises that materiality cannot be represented in its totality in the discourse of signification. Thereby the aura can only gain a metaphoric access to representation. Technology denies any auratic perception or experience, as such the auratic exists only in the hypothesis of a historical origin, such as a metaphysical paradisical condition. The commodity structure stands as a paradigm for modern perception and experience. Commodity fetishism denies the subject an auratic interaction and the relation between subject and object is phantasmagoria!. An auratic perception or experience is replaced by one determined by technology. Benjamin calls the latter one of actuality. Thereby the commodity denies an experience leading to the concept of totality. Benjamin's formulation of the concept of the aura has been seen as his turn to Marxism. A clear demarcation has been drawn between his metaphysical and Marxist writings. My thesis argues that such a division is inadequate and that the common demoninator between Benjamin's earlier and later work has not been analysed sufficiently. Bibliography: pages 225-236.
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    Die "Elis-Gedichte" Georg Trakls
    (1979) Grapow, Gudrun; Horn, Peter
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    Die Künstlerproblematik im Naturalismus dargestellt an Papa Hamlet von Arno Holz und Johannes Schlaf
    (1989) Koch, Sabine; Pakendorf, Gunther
    The problem of artistic endeavour and recognition of creative imaginative writing at a time of revolutionary scientific and industrial activity, brings into focus the re-evaluation of the artist during intense economic development. The intellectual crisis of the artist in Germany, 1870-1895, is strongly influenced by the emphasis on financial success and scientific observation. This emphasis is linked to the new aesthetic and artistic expectations, which are influenced by the political and social reality of the industrial age. Naturalism is characterised by an abundance of theoretical literature; Arno Holz is regarded as the greatest of the theorists and his work Papa Hamlet, written together with Johannes Schlaf, is an attempt to combine theoretical consideratiohs with the "new" art. This thesis critically examines Papa Hamlet against the background of social, political and economic change. The investigation into four major areas includes firstly the intellectual crisis in relation to the "Grunderzeit"; the sentimental art of this period is strongly rejected as it in no way reflects the reality of the industrial age. It is vitally important for the artists to be seen as modern, reflecting the truth of the age in which they write. This truth requires the work of art to be as close a reproduction of nature, of real life, as possible. Attention to detail becomes vital and leads Arno Holz to the "Sekundenstil." Secondly, this thesis confronts Papa Hamlet with theoretical background as defined by Arno Holz. Thirdly the attempt made by Holz and Schlaf not to interfere as authors between the piece of prose and the reader, leads to the question of prose versus drama. The investigation leads also into the problem of the lower middle class artist who is confronted by economic difficulties and finds himself threatened by the working class. Thienwiebel's perseverance as "Hamlet", symbolic of an art no longer acceptable, brings a discussion on the traditional German "Bildungsroman". Finally, Arno Holz maintains that Art can only be revolutionised if language is revolutionised; these claims are examined in Papa Hamlet. It is my contention that the artist's claim of being democratic is strongly to be questioned as Papa Hamlet can only be really appreciated by readers who have studied Hamlet by Shakespeare. The greatest achievement by the Naturalists lies in questioning existing values; scientific observation and creative spirit. The Art of Arno Holz, in particular the "Sekundenstil", may be seen to be the· forerunner of Expressionism, Surrealism and Dadaism.
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    Die repräsentation der männlichkeit in Fassbinders Lola
    (1998) Prins, Jo-Anne Juliana; Horn, Peter
    The thesis is an analysis of the definition of masculinity. Sociological and psychological studies have been referenced, in particular feminist, gender and current men's studies. The German director,·Rainer Werner Fassbinder's life and work are briefly illustrated to gain an insight into the main themes in his films. Lola (1981) is the film chosen for analysis of the representation of masculinity. The main characters, the power dynamics of the gaze and prostitution are the main themes of the analysis.
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    Fiction, ideology and history : a critical examination of Hans Grimm's novel 'Kaffernland'
    (1988) Bardien, Faiza; Pakendorf, Gunther
    This dissertation aims to place Hans Grimm's uncompleted epic, Kaffernland, eine deutsche Sage (Kaffraria, a German Legend) within the context of the historical discourse of the nineteenth-century as it has been challenged by presentday critical historiography. Central to Grimm's text is the problematic relationship between fiction and historical reality. It reproduces historical documents and relies on the scientific aura of a bourgeois realist discourse to present itself as having reference to an extra-textual reality. These truth-claims are examined with Roland Barthes' structuralist techniques. I locate Grimm's text within an intertext dominated by the ideologies of German nationalism, colonial space and fate. His portrayal of mid-nineteenth century political questions is shown as a contradictory amalgam of partisanship for both the bourgeoisie and the small peasantry, of romantic anti-capitalism and pro-imperialism. The authoritarian narrative discourse affirms Britain's colonial subjugation of the Xhosa and negates Xhosa resistance. I focus on speaking positions in the text and the power of the colonizer's practice of designating and signifying. The rhetoric of the text is seen as a continuation of politics against Britain's exploitation of the British German Legion and of German missionary work in British Kaffraria. Grimm reproduces and embellishes the mythology of the German Legion as saviours of Kaffraria and Germany. He inverts history to re-make the negative record of the German Military Settlement. I show how mythic signs and a moralizing discourse stimulate an envisaged pre-World War I readership to recognize Kaffraria as a German colony and to reflect on how, in its own times, Germany can be regenerated through acquiring colonial space. The mythological discourse is also viewed in the light of the text's attempts to manifest the external factual reliability and inner truth of bourgeois realism. While Grimm deploys the literary conventions of the modern novel, as an epigone he draws on the forms of legend, saga and epic cultivated in the nineteenth century. He alludes to the Icelandic saga also to legitimize a claim to Xhosaland. This first book of the epic, presented as complete, attains a measure of cohesion through techniques of parallelism and contiguity. The text parallels the fate of the German and Xhosa nations and simultaneously signifies the Xhosa as destroyers of Xhosaland and the cattle-killing movement of 1856-57 as a diabolical plan. I see this mythologization of history as the ideological justification for the expropriation of the Xhosa and show that Grimm's colonialist fiction is in fact a colonizing discourse.
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    Frau und Kirche im literarischen Werk von Gertrud von Le Fort
    (1977) Kessler, Hannah; Horn, Peter
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    Gustav Freytag's Soll und Haben und D.F. Malherbe's Hans-die-skipper : ein Vergleich
    (1990) Bertelsmann, Richard; Pakendorf, Gunther; Horn, Peter
    Gustav Freytag's Soll und Haben (1855) and D. F. Malherbe's Hans-die-Skipper (1929) can both be read as reactions to early industrial capitalism, although neither text refers directly to this phenomenon. This dissertation attempts to show that both novels display a similar, ambivalent attitude, whilst defending the "logic of the market" against proponents of the moribund semi-feudal system, they pre-empt the moral indifference of the market by positing a "new" value in absolute terms. In either case, this value is "industry", in both the economical and the moral sense of the term. This aspect of both texts is analysed in terms of the literary theory of Peter V. Zima. On closer inspection, it is found that both authors attribute the moral value of "industry" exclusively to one social group, namely the group whose interests they hope to advance. In Freytag' s case, this is the conservative, pre-industrial German bourgeoisie; in Malherbe's case, the impoverished, Afrikaans-speaking rural population of the early 20th century. However, in translating their "ideological projects" into a literary "figuration" (in the sense of Pierre Macherey), both authors encounter certain problems, which only appear in the "absences" and the "silences" of their texts. These are analyzed in terms of the literary theory of Pierre Macherey. Finally, in both texts, the moral value of "industry", and the social hierarchy established in its name, are subliminally or temporarily threatened by the "pleasure principle". This aspect is analyzed- in terms of Klaus Theweleit's findings gained from "pre-fascist" texts of the early 20th century.
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    Ingeborg Bachmann: Wer spricht? Eine Analyse der Sprache und des Subjekts in dem Erzählband Das dreißigste Jahr (1961)
    (2015) Egner, Thorsten; Selzer, B; Snyman, JWO
    This dissertation analyses the formation, function and portrayal of language and the subject in the narrative cycle The Thirtieth Year (Das dreißigste Jahr) by the Austrian writer Ingeborg Bachmann (1926-1973), in light of the theories brought forward by the poststructural movement. The traditional outlook on the subject is one that regards it as being autonomous. This autonomy is challenged by the narrative cycle: the analysis shows, how subjects are constructed by a web of interconnecting discourses. In fact, the very qualities from which the subject forms its identity are conferred by the other, which forbids any notion of reflecting on the subject in an autonomous manner. The narratives demonstrate, how the subject will always find itself in an indefinite process of becoming, a process which solicits a different approach, i.e. a change of consciousness for its acknowledgement - one which offers the subject a space to probe its own becoming. Subsequently, this different method of acknowledgement is also confined to the given order. The re-imagining, which the different subjects perform throughout the narrative cycle, show, that Bachmann's subjects are neither fully predestined, nor are they fully autonomous. Although agency is outlined by the given order, the subject is still able to re-evaluate its agency in previously unmediated ways. This shows that ways of existing are not as unalterable as suggested by the given structures. By re -assessing all approaches of autonomous agency, this narrative cycle sensitises the reader to structures that form the subject, and possible ways in which it is thereby oppressed. The narratives expose the mechanisms that form socially recognisable subjects and, more importantly, give voice to those subjects, who find themselves on the periphery of the normative majority. To do so, the dissertation employs theories, which have been categorised as 'poststructural.' These theories lend themselves well to disclosing the repressive character of governing norms and to problematize attempts to universalise certain paradigms. For instance, the assumption that language constitutes identity of the subject, amongst other factors, is re-evaluated in the sense that language and discourse, in fact, restrict and limit the subject in its quest for identity. Bachmann's later works (i.e. Malina (1971), Simultan (1970), Der Fall Franza (1978)) have been the subject of poststructural scrutiny, especially from a feminist perspective. The narrative cycle The Thirtieth Year, however, has received little attention by theorists employing poststructural means of analysis. The dissertation therefore sets out to show that valuable insights can be gained when reading the text from a poststructural perspective.
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    Kontroverses Erbe und Innovation : die Novelle Die Reisebegegnung von Anna Seghers im literaturpolitischen Kontext der DDR der siebziger Jahre
    (1990) Horn, Anette; Pakendorf, Gunther
    The dissertation attempts to analyse the novella Die Reisebegegnung by Anna Seghers not as an isolated "work" by an isolated "author" but as a symptom of the possibilities and limits of innovative writing in the German Democratic Republic in the seventies. While it therefore situates the novella within the context of literary politics, it also tries to show how Anna Seghers expanded the boundaries of literary political debates, which focused on the concepts of cultural heritage and social realism, by using the form of fiction instead of a critical essay. The first chapter deals with the historical context of the novella. It tries to show Anna Seghers' allegorical depiction of the literary figures of "Nikolai Gogol", "E. T. A. Hoffmann" and "Franz Kafka" as representations of the aesthetics of realism, romanticism and modernism respectively. The use of allegory marks a significant breakaway from the method of social realism. The chapter also tries to show the intertextuality of the novella. The second chapter focuses on the debate on cultural heritage in the GDR. It retraces Anna Seghers' changing attitudes to the controversial cultural heritage of romanticism and modernism in the Marxist debate on realism from the thirties up to the publication of the novella Die Reisebegegn.ung in 1973. The third chapter deals with the theory of socialist realism as developed by Georg Lukacs and simplified by the Stalinist cultural functionary Andrei Zhdanov. It attempts to define the position taken by Anna Seghers in the Marxist debate on realism in which she argued on the same side as Ernst Bloch and Bertolt Brecht against the concept of realism upheld by Lukacs. The fourth chapter deals with the depiction of the three literary figures in the novella. It attempts to show in how far this figuration deviates from the orthodox Marxist reception of the three authors on the one hand and from that of alternative Marxist and non-Marxist interpretations on the other. The fifth chapter analyses Anna Seghers' literary representation of time. She lets the three authors travel freely through "objective" historical time, which constitutes the most significant deviation from the theory of socialist realism in the novella. The chapter discusses the implications this has for innovative writing in the GDR. While Anna Seghers tries to incorporate the divergent concepts of realism of the three authors - each situated within his own literary historical framework - into her variety of socialist realism in the GDR in the seventies, she adapts and changes the complexity and specificity of their representations of reality. The unresolved contradictions of the novella, however, constantly subvert the claim to an extraliterary reality, which the literary figures and the novella make. The limits of this novella in its literary historical context were in turn expanded by writers in the GDR in the seventies who saw in it a legitimisation for their own literary experiments.
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    Literatur und Emanzipation von Frauen in der Frühromantik : Bettine von Arnim und Karoline von Günderrode
    (1992) Klipp, Veronica; Selzer, Brigitte
    Early German Romanticism is a period associated in literary analysis with the emancipation of women. Two women writers of the time. Bettine von Arnim and Karoline von Günderrode take up the Romantic view of literature as an emancipating medium. The thesis refers to Romanticism to define the concepts of feminity, literature and emancipation within their historical context. Romanticism attempts a dialogue between the self and its other, and ultimately re-defines woman as the other of the author male. Friedrich Schlegel's novel Lucinde is analysed as a paradigmatic example of the identification of the self through the medium of literature. The writings of Bettine and Karoline have been analysed as early examples of a feminist literary tradition from the standpoint of feminist theory located in the context of modern women's movements. By way of contrast to Romantic literary theory, this feminist literary theory is expressed as a perceived continuity of women's experience. The concept of self-realisation of women authors through literature is examined from the standpoint of understanding literary texts as objectification of self. French feminist criticism is employed to analyse the relation of feminity to systems of representations from the perspective of modern textual practice. It is argued that Bettine's novel is structured around the literary correspondence between herself and Karoline in which they were able to create a "free-space" (Freiraum) in order to discuss their alienation from society. In realising Romanticism's concept of a dialogue. Bettine achieves a new concept of authorship which allows a representation of female desire, as defined by French theory, through a reflection in Karoline as her other. While both women enjoy the advantage of education. Bettine rejects this as an example of male norms. Karoline imitates these norms to emancipate herself. Karoline identifies with the dominant aesthetic norms in her poetry in an attempt at identification. Her letters, on the other hand, reflect a modern experience of discontinuity of self, which she explains as a result of the absence of social practice in the society of her time and the limitations imposed on her as a woman. In the thesis, it is concluded that Karoline's production is difficult to reconcile with either of the above literary theories. Neither Karoline's nor Bettine's literature can be seen as representative of a unified female subject. The medium of literature enables the development of an aesthetic subjectivity, which, it is argued, can be applied to women-specific" (frauenspezifisch) criticism.
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    Mimesis, Widerstand, Subversion : Bettina von Arnims Briefroman Die Günderode als Ansatz diskursiver Entgrenzung
    (1992) Schmitt, Marco; Noyes, John
    Bettina von Arnims novel Die Günderode was written during the period of early German romanticism. The novel consists of an exchange of letters between the literary figure Bettine and an opposite, Gunderode. This exchange takes place in the light of the philosophical discourse of German idealism, mainly represented by Johann Gottlieb Fichte, which excludes women as independent subjects. The novel reveals Bettine's dissatisfaction about her exclusion as a woman within the discourse of idealism. As Bettine realizes her non-representation in the existing discourse of her time she develops distinct writing techniques in order to discover her own subjectivity. She comes to the conclusion, however, that as a woman she can neither be represented in the prevailing discourse nor in another alternative "female" discourse. Using the feminist theoretical framework of Luce lrigaray, in particular her book Das Geschlecht, das nicht eins ist, the author investigates the discursive nature of German idealism and comes to the conclusion that it is essentially a male discourse. The author then analyses Bettine's attempts to liberate herself from male discourse using lrigaray. The author concludes that Bettine's writing technique corresponds to a great extent with the concepts formulated by Irigaray. While Bettine is able to undermine and subvert male discourse, she is aware that she cannot establish a new alternative discourse in which her subjectivity is fully represented.
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    Mythos und Ironie im Werk Thomas Manns
    (1960) Boeddinghaus, Walter
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    Nietzsches Begriff der décadence : kritik und analyse der moderne
    (1998) Horn, Anette; Noyes, John
    Nietzsche himself has placed the problem of décadence into the centre of his thinking. But he mistrusts any definitions which tear concepts out of the context of their becoming and reduce them to a static 'meaning. In his analysis of décadence there a no unambiguous causes and effects. The very historical breadth and ambivalence of the word ' décadence ' does not allow the unambiguous assignation of the word to a 'meaning. Nietzsche's remarks about décadence allow us to postulate two hypotheses as their basis: the first, 'Darwinist' hypothesis would be that occidental culture impedes the development of humanity because it makes 'natural selection' ineffective. The second, 'historico-philosophical' hypothesis would be: everything has existed before, nothing changes, there is neither progress nor degeneration. Nietzsche uses the discoveries of the natural sciences of his time to question radically the separation between biology and culture, natural history and human history, physis and psyche. One of the dominant themes of physiology of the 19th century was the boundary between the pathological and the normal. Nietzsche transfers the medical scheme of diagnosis, aetiology and prognosis to a social and cultural phenomenon such as décadence. In contrast to a conservative critique of culture Nietzsche does not bemoan the disintegration of eternal values, which are supposed to underpin a High Culture, but questions the values of religions and philosophies themselves which pretend to be eternal but subordinate life to false aims. Nietzsche drafts a psycho-pathology of the type of the décadence, the embodiment of which is the Christian. Nietzsche sees the "nihilist religions all as: systematis[ed] stories of illness in a religious-moral terminology". In the centre of the psychopathology of Christianity Nietzsche makes out the negation of the body. Nietzsche terms the movement which opposes all idealisms a nihilism. Nihilism derives from the understanding that the highest philosophical, religious and ethical values have become devalued. The understanding that truth is based on mere appearance and that it is no 'thing as such', as believed by Platonic and Christian tradition, leads to a renunciation of the truth claim.
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    Realism and anti-realism in the work of George Lukács
    (1989) Le Roux, Evert; Horn, Peter
    This essay sets out to explore Lukács's views on realism and its polar opposite. anti-realism, in nineteenth and twentieth-century literature. As a Marxist, Lukács's views on literature are closely interwoven with his views of society and and social development. This necessitates first looking at Lukács's theory of society and history as expressed in the epochal History and Class Consciousness. The essay firstly attempts to present and criticize the central Lukácsian concept of concrete totality. Totality, for Lukács, is not a static concept but a dynamically evolving, ever-changing idea. However, he tends to view totality as simply a concept of contemplation. Lukács indicates the proletariat as the subject-object of Western European history.
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    Realistischer Diskurs und dialogischer Text : eine Strukturanalyse von Peter Handkes Roman "Der Kurze Brief zum langen Abschied"
    (1983) Pakendorf, Gunther; Horn, Peter
    The question whether the critical tools developed by, the structuralist approach can stand up to a text which alienates or deviates from traditional narrative discourse is one of the main theoretical concerns of this thesis. The investigation is based on two premises: firstly, that the contemporary novel is as much the literary expression of bourgeois consciousness as its predecessor in the 18th and 19th centuries, whose mode of expression was that of realism; secondly, that the paradigm shift from classic bourgeois realism to the modern novel must be seen as a dialectic process: modern fiction can thus be said to be engaged in an intertextual dialogue with traditional realist discourse. In confronting the method and conclusions of S/Z by Roland Barthes with a contemporary text, the thesis aims to reflect this dialogue on a meta-literary level. Starting from a detailed analysis of the structural elements of the text and their arrangement, the thesis proceeds to a description of the technique of deviation on the microstructural level as well as in conjunction with contextual, ideological and symbolic reference. The complex relation between fiction and reality is then investigated with regard to the configuration and in conjunction with the notion of identity, the focal point of the novel. Handke's complex understanding of reality and consequently also his response to the realist tradition are derived from the unstated realization of the fictionality of the bourgeois concept of the subject. This is the background to the discussion of the structures of traditional realist discourse and the ambivalent portrayal of reality in Handke's novel, which amounts to the application of realist discourse in order to subvert it. Finally, Handke's rigorous anti-ideological position is evaluated in conjunction with Bakhtin's theory of the dialogic text and the concept of intertextuality as developed by Julia Kristeva. While Handke's novel can thus be seen to be critical both in its perception of, and response to contemporary reality and in its refusal to accept any systematic modes of thought, its contradictions remain unresolved since it registers but does not transcend the problematic nature of the core of bourgeois ideology, the self-image of the subject.
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    The role of the woman in Gottfried's Tristan : a literary-sociological study
    (1991) Fourie, Renée Cécile; Pasche, Wolgang
    The purpose of this study is to look at the role of Isolde, in particular, in the medieval epic TRISTAN - not TRISTAN AND ISOLDE as many call it. In an attempt to understand the role of the woman in Gottfried von Strassburg's TRISTAN, the woman in medieval society and literature was examined in order to ascertain whether Gottfried was presenting a vastly different or a traditional model. There being no historical literature from this time, church and legal documentation provides the only source of information on the woman of the Middle Ages. As fiction of the time would also reflect society of the day, medieval epics and poetry were consulted and compared. A study was made of ROLE-PLAY to ascertain whether there is a relationship between "individual" and society at this time, and whether it is reflected in literature. It was deemed necessary for an understanding of the confrontation of the two main characters with the society in which they operate. Lastly the text was examined for indications of a "new", "progressive" role afforded the woman as a reflection of social changes of the day. Isolde was considered in terms of education, childhood influences, individuality, "psychological" makeup, social (antisocial) behaviour, as fulfilling a traditional role or representing a new morality, particularly in her interaction with the male, Tristan.