Self-Reflections in the work of Heinrich von Morungen

The Department of German is pleased to co-sponsor the visit of Dr. Christiane Ackermann, currently a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard University, who will be delivering a talk on “Self-Reflections in the work of Heinrich von Morungen” as part of the (http://web.princeton.edu/sites/medieval/calendar.html), poems that typically focused on the poet’s frustrated love for a distant lofty lady. As the attention given this ostensibly external object often masks a narcissistic positioning of the lyric subject, Dr. Ackermann will be exploring different forms of subjective mirroring in Heinrich’s poems as well as the particular signifying function of the gaze in this context. Dr. Ackermann, whose scholarship is informed by a sustained engagement with literary theory (especially psychoanalysis), is the author of Im Spannungsfeld von Ich und Körper: Subjektivität im ‘Parzival’ Wolframs von Eschenbach und im ‘Frauendienst’ Ulrichs von Liechtenstein (Köln/Weimar/Wien: Böhlau, 2009). Dr. Ackermann will also lead a lunchtime seminar/discussion on the often contested relationship between so-called “modern” theory and medieval literature which will take place at noon on Wednesday, March 26, 2014 in 207 East Pyne; lunch will be served. Please contact Yolanda Sullivan (syolanda@princeton.edu) syolanda@princeton.edu) to register for the Wednesday seminar.