The Past as the Key for the Future: What Does (Medieval) Literature Mean Today in the Twenty-First Century?

Abstract

The Humanities are increasingly challenged by the fields of Science, Medicine, and Business, but people desperately need to understand their fundamental human side in order to cope constructively in this world. Continuing previous explorations of this large topic, this paper focuses, once again, on the questions what history really means for us today, how literary narratives allow us to ruminate on the human condition, both materially and spiritually, and how we can profit from the philosophical insights developed by Karl Jaspers in his reflections on Vom Ursprung und Ziel der Geschichte (1949). Despite, or just because of the rapidly expanding digitization of nearly every aspect of human existence, the Humanities continue to be of essential relevance in everything we do, study, embrace, or pursue in our lives.