Rural Space in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Age

Aug. 26, 2012
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Older research on the premodern world limited its focus on the Church, the court, and, more recently, on urban space. The present volume invites readers to consider the meaning of rural space, both in light of ecocritical readings and social-historical approaches. While previous scholars examined the figure of the peasant in the premodern world, the current volume combines a large number of specialized studies that investigate how the natural environment and the appearance of members of the rural population interacted with the world of the court and of the city. The experience in rural space was important already for writers and artists in the premodern era, as the large variety of scholarly approaches indicates. The present volume signals how much the surprisingly close interaction between members of the aristocratic and of the peasant class determined many literary and art-historical works. In a surprisingly large number of cases we can even discover elements of utopia hidden in rural space. We also observe how much the rural world was a significant element already in early-medieval mentality. Moreover, as many authors point out, the impact of natural forces on premodern society was tremendous, if not catastrophic. 

The Department of German Studies would like to congratulate Prof. Albrecht Classen to this recently published this book. Prof. Classen published this new book, Rural Space in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Age, together with Christopher R. Clason (Berlin and New York: De Gruyter). This volume is available in print and in e-book form.

Dr. Albrecht Classen is University Distinguished Professor of German Studies at the University of Arizona, where he teaches and researches medieval and early modern European literature, culture, and art history. He has published more than sixty scholarly monographs, editions, translations, critical volumes, and textbooks, and more than 500 articles. Most recently he published Sexual Violence and Rape in the Middle Ages (2011), Sex im Mittelalter (in German, 2011); War and Piece: Critical Issues in European Societies 800-1800 (2011), and Friendship in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Age (2011). In 2010 he published the standard-setting three volume Handbook of Medieval Studies. Currently he is preparing a new Handbook of Medieval Cultures. He serves as editor of the journals Mediaevistik, Tristania, and Humanities. He has received numerous teaching and research awards, most notably the Bundesverdienstkreuz am Band (Order of Merit) from the German government in 2004.