The Leitword in Minnesang

A new tool of stylistic analysis, spatially controlled distribution of leitwords, is applied to medieval German poetry in this book. Proceeding from the great Austrian 12th-century poet, Reinmar, the author closely examines numerous poems in the Pseudo-Reinmarian and Post-Reinmarian tradition, throwing light both on the poets' techniques and also on complicated manuscript problems.

The groupings of leitwords, or repeated theme words, chosen by the author are those pertaining to the joys and sorrows of love. Dr. Ziegler shows how the poets built up large leitword networks connected with suffering or joy so that they achieved optimal effects. She also found a stanza of intensification, that stanza containing the highest incidence of leitwords for a given theme. Most importantly, because the study of leitwords offers insights into the stylistic structure of Minnesang, the author makes a convincing case for rearranging the stanzas according to their original order, as found in manuscripts, rather than according to editors' conceptions of what Minnesang ought to be.