Abschlussschwäche? Die closure des höfischen Romans zwischen Mediengeschichte und Kulturpoetik

The article deals with the closure of the, mostly Middle High German, courtly romance, taking as primary example Heinrich von Veldeke’s Eneide. ‘Courtly closure’ is defined as a slow and tenacious fading of narrative progression, by means of gradually transforming this progression into a virtually static state, namely, the description of an enduring courtly feast. It is argued that this way of bringing a romance or a novel to its end – unusual in the course of European literary history – is motivated by several factors. Amongst these, special attention is paid to media history (episodic narration, recital) and to cultural poetics (didactic qualities of the courtly romance).