Ursula Peters: Vasallität und Ökonomie in der Literatur des Mittelalters

The relationship between literature and society is as much discussed as it is contentious. In her foundational works, Ursula Peters has demonstrated, in engagement with international research paradigms, that a methodically controlled reference to sociocultural contexts is necessary in literary studies to adequately measure the broad field of meaning relations in literary texts and to capture literary specifics. The nine contributions reprinted here, which can be read in connection for the first time, honor her work by making two recent, indirectly related debates in international historical research fruitful for literary studies: on the one hand, the discussion of feudalism and the system of vassalage, which has put the model of medieval feudalism to the test, and on the other hand, the investigations into the socio-economic exchange processes of the nobility, which serve as a reference framework for functional historical text interpretations.