Albrecht Classen - Toleration and Tolerance in Medieval European Literature

Toleration and Tolerance in Medieval and Early Modern European Literature

Toleration and Tolerance in Medieval and Early Modern European Literature aims to examine and unearth the critical investigations of toleration and tolerance presented in literary texts of the Middle Ages and the early modern age. In contrast to previous approaches, this volume identifies new methods of interpreting conventional classifications of toleration and tolerance through the emergence of multilevel voices in literary, religious, and philosophical discourses of authorities in medieval and early modern literature. Accordingly, this volume identifies two separate definitions of toleration and tolerance; the former as a representative of a majority group accepts a member of the minority group but still holds firmly to the believe that s/he is right and the other entirely wrong, and tolerance meaning that all faiths, convictions, and ideologies are treated equally, and the majority speaker is ready to accept that potentially his/her position is wrong. Applying these distinct differences in the critical investigation of interaction and representation in context, this book offers new insight into the tolerant attitudes portrayed in medieval literature of which regularly appealed, influenced, and shaped popular opinions of the period.

Albrecht Classen is University Distinguished Professor of German Studies at the University of Arizona where he teaches and researches medieval and early modern German and European literature and culture. In hisby now ninetyfourscholarly books, he has examined many different aspects, most recently magic (2017), water (2017); the forest (2016); death (2016); multilingualism (2016); love, marriage, and sexuality (in several books over the last two decades); and friendship, urban and rural space, crime and punishment, womens voices, etc. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia in 1986. He has received major grants and awards for teaching, research, and service and received the title of Grand Knight Commander of the Most Noble Order of the Three Lions in 2017.

Routledge Studies in Medieval Literature and Culture

1 Biblical Paradigms in Medieval English Literature
From Cdmon to Malory
Lawrence Besserman

2 Sin and Filth in Medieval Culture
The Devil in the Latrine
Martha Bayless

3 Cultural Difference and Material Culture in Middle English Romance
Normans and Saxons
Dominique Battles

4 Mary Magdalene in Medieval Culture
Conflicted Roles
Edited by Peter V. Loewen and Robin Waugh

5 The Signifying Power of Pearl
Medieval Literacy and Cultural Contexts for the Transformation of Genre
Jane Beal

6 Language and Community in Early England
Imagining Distance in Medieval Literature
Emily Butler

7 Storytelling as Plague Prevention in Medieval and Early Modern Italy
The Decameron Tradition
Martin Marafioti

8 Toleration and Tolerance in Medieval and Early Modern European Literature
Albrecht Classen

First published 2018
by Routledge
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2018 Taylor & Francis

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ISBN: 978-1-138-54571-7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-351-00108-3 (ebk)

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It is my pleasant task to acknowledge many colleagues, friends, and libraries that supported me in my research, allowed me to present early versions of the central theses at their universities, and facilitated my visit of specialized research libraries between 2017 and 2018. Michelle Salyga from Routledge originally invited me to write this book for their publishing house, and my proposal was then vetted by several anonymous readers, for which I am very grateful. The Charles Koch Foundation for the Humanities supported me with a very generous summer research grant, which made my visit to European archives and libraries possible in the first place, which I would like to acknowledge most thankfully. Matthias Roick facilitated a short-term research fellowship at the famous Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbttel through his Freigeist Project The Ways of Virtue. The Ethica-Section in Wolfenbttel and the History of Ethics in Early Modern Europe, located at the Georg-August-Universitt Gttingen. Both in Gttingen and in Wolfenbttel I was able to write most of the chapter on toleration and tolerance in the age of the Protestant Reformation. My colleagues Ingrid Bennewitz (Otto-Friedrich Universitt Bamberg), Reinhold Glei (Ruhr-Universitt Bochum), and Hans-Joachim Solms (Martin-Luther-Universitt Halle-Wittenberg) invited me to give lectures corresponding to my central investigations, and these opportunities also allowed me to sharpen my arguments and to continue with my research at their respective libraries.

I was also able to work at the Universittsbibliothek Frankfurt a. M., which was facilitated by my dear colleague Sieglinde Hartmanns hospitality. Moreover, I briefly enjoyed the great research opportunities at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg, which was made possible through the generous hospitality of my friend Reinhold Mnster and his wife Elke, who provided me with much intellectual stimulus. I also consulted the library holdings at the universities of Heidelberg, Leipzig, Dresden, Gttingen, and Berlin (HU and FU), and I am most grateful to Dieter Burdorf, Gert Melville, Bernd Schneidmller, Cornelia Schlarb, and Bjrn Reich for their invitations to give lectures at their respective institutions. The intellectual exchanges with my friend and colleague Peter Dinzelbacher (Werfen near Salzburg) were particularly fruitful. Again, I am also very thankful for his and his wife Angelikas hospitality. Moreover, it is my joy to mention my highly learned friends and colleagues Jerzy Strzelczyk and his wife Dorota, who housed me for some days at their tranquil country home in Potrzanowo (near Pozna, Poland), which allowed me to complete most of my chapter on Boccaccio and to flesh out other chapters as a result of our conversations about historical conditions in the Middle Ages that might lend themselves for the identification of elements of tolerance or toleration. Last but not least, the main library at the University of Arizona also deserves much credit for its outstanding collections and untiring support of research, either by adding new items when they become available or by securing a copy of important material through their interlibrary loan service.

I also want to express my gratitude to very good colleagues and friends both at my home university and globally who read the individual chapters for me and pointed out infelicities, typos, errors, and made some valuable suggestions: Fabian Alfie (University of Arizona), Christopher R. Clason (Oakland University, Rochester, MI), Steven D. Martinson (University of Arizona), Constant Mews (Monash University, Melbourne, Australia), Marilyn Sandidge (Westfield State University, MA), Anne M. Scott (Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff), Thomas Willard (University of Arizona), and Elizabeth Chesney Zegura (University of Arizona).