Schwieriges Erkennen

Coats of arms, clothing and armour are easier to manipulate than passports or ID cards. Medieval narratives are full of scenes in which there is a problem in clearly identifying who and what is who. From these, it is possible to reconstruct models of recognising the other, which alienate us today, but reveal much about ideas of perception and identity at the time. The book shows how courtly literature uses literary games with these models both to confirm and continually to question central premisses of feudal culture.