Introduction: Theorizing Transtextual Characters in Ancient and Medieval Literature
von Contzen E, Philipowski K, Bär S, Cordes L, Fuhrer T, Glauch S, Kragl F, Schneider C, Thon JN (2025)
Publication Type: Journal article
Publication year: 2025
Journal
Book Volume: 19
Pages Range: 169-189
Issue: 2
Abstract
This introduction maps the field of transtextual characters: what are such characters, how have they been approached in scholarship, especially narrative theory and media studies, and why can a perspective on premodern material in particular give new impulses to their analysis? We discuss, first, the relevance of distinguishing between text and work. In premodern contexts, texts are often unstable and transmitted in various witnesses, versions, and redactions, calling into question the notion of a ›work‹. This has an impact also on how transtextual characters function. The proximity and distance of single texts to one another are decisive for the investigation of transtextual characters, and too great a correspondence does not create transtextual characters. We then consider the pragmatic contexts of reception in antiquity and the Middle Ages. These are a further challenge because fictionality, fictivity, and factuality were construed differently, based on the ancient distinction between historia, argumentum, and fabula. What is more, the transtextuality of characters is also dependent on genre. The generic dimension of transtextual characters relies on narrative worlds of high stability, which are clearly separated from one another, and can be amplified by seriality. We then chart four theoretical approaches to determine and describe the identity of literary characters in different works: (1) the idea of an iconic core, which refers to a stable, nuclear set of properties that are not modified; (2) the concept of persona, which is based on the ancient idea of characters as masks for text-external persons; (3) the prototype model, which is based on the presence or absence of key character traits across time; and (4) typological writing, that is, the use of prefiguration as a method to build character.
Authors with CRIS profile
Sonja Glauch
Lehrstuhl für Ältere deutsche Literatur
Florian Kragl
Lehrstuhl für Deutsche Philologie im europäischen Kontext
Involved external institutions
Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg
Germany (DE)
Universität Osnabrück
Germany (DE)
Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz (JGU)
Germany (DE)
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Germany (DE)
Universität Potsdam
Germany (DE)
University of Oslo
Norway (NO)
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU)
Germany (DE)
Germany (DE)
Universität Osnabrück
Germany (DE)
Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz (JGU)
Germany (DE)
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Germany (DE)
Universität Potsdam
Germany (DE)
University of Oslo
Norway (NO)
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU)
Germany (DE)
How to cite
APA:
von Contzen, E., Philipowski, K., Bär, S., Cordes, L., Fuhrer, T., Glauch, S.,... Thon, J.-N. (2025). Introduction: Theorizing Transtextual Characters in Ancient and Medieval Literature. Journal of Literary Theory, 19, 169-189. https://doi.org/10.1515/jlt-2025-2009
MLA:
von Contzen, Eva, et al. "Introduction: Theorizing Transtextual Characters in Ancient and Medieval Literature." Journal of Literary Theory 19 (2025): 169-189.
BibTeX: Download