Speaker
Description
The representation of disability in medieval German literature shows a continuing crisis of the body, faith, and meaning. In this crisis, the human body becomes the site of conflict between divine will and human existence. Hartmann von Aue’s Der arme Heinrich presents a crisis through the story of a nobleman with Aussatz (leprosy). The disease creates a crisis of body, spirit, and community. It functions as a sign of sin, punishment, and redemption. The text operates within a biblical crisis structure found in the Old Testament. References to Zara’at in Leviticus and Numbers show a crisis of impurity and exclusion. This reading places Der arme Heinrich in the center of a theological crisis that links body and salvation. Hartmann turns this crisis into a process of reflection. The act of illness begins a crisis of belief and purpose. The plan of a virgin sacrifice as cure creates a moral crisis that joins suffering and renewal. The poem shows a human crisis where disability leads to recognition of dependence on divine order. The crisis of the body becomes a means of social and spiritual change.
By focusing on Der arme Heinrich, the study presents medieval literature as a field of continuing crisis between purity and sin, exclusion and return, body and soul. Through biblical exegesis, the work traces the crisis of human difference to scriptural origins. The concept of crisis connects illness, faith, and community as parts of a single structure of meaning. The study contributes to an understanding of how medieval thought used crisis to define disability as part of human and divine relation.
| Keywords | disability, leprosy, hartmann von aue, der arme heinrich, medieval |
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| habib.tekin@hotmail.com |