Abstract:The first prose novels in the German language have been attributed to two writers of the late Middle Ages, Elisabeth von Nassau-Saarbrücken (c. 1393-1456) and Eleonore von Österreich (1433-1480). These Early New High German texts have been typed by scholars as Trivialliteratur , a classification this essay questions. Eleonore and Elisabeth transform their source texts, chansons de geste , to increase the political role for women. I argue that the authors' own international political skill and marital experienc… Show more
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