Honor, Deviance, and the Politics of What Can Be Seen in Early Modern German Literature

• In Event: Humanism, Scholasticism, Pedagogy, and Language in Late Medieval England and Early Modern Germany

Abstract

The Middle High German word êre ("honor," "recognition," "reputation") defies in some ways a singular, direct translation, for the connotations do not convey the abstract and internal notion of one’s integrity and worth that one associates with the term today. In early modern literature, êre is both an agent of societal order, a specific knowledge of interaction, and act of communication. While its origins root in the religious sphere, the meaning of êre expands especially to the worldly fascination for the numinous and exceptional. This paper aims to explore how this multi-faceted concept is been visualized, depicted, and what role it is playing within the 'politics of the visible' throughout early modern German literature. While the paper offers a etymological investigation and conceptual history, the focus is on how êre functions as a a specific form of social and cultural capital in literary texts.

Author

• Kathrin Gollwitzer-Oh, University of California, Berkeley