Volume 21, Issue 2 -

The article traces the construction of the legend surrounding the mystery of Francis of Assisi’s stigmata, which are said to have appeared two years before his death. Central to this analysis, which is underpinned by sign and media theory, is the Legenda maior , a description of the life of Francis, written by Bonaventura four decades later on the basis of older testimonies and legends. The focus is on those strategies which allow the change of events between mediation and immediacy, in that they, on the one hand, are dominated by a concrete, spacial framework and, on the other, by moments of that which is unverfügbar .

In this essay I discuss the ways in which a Christian spiritual tradition negotiates the challenges of negative theology and the impossibility to access divine truth through the use of images and allegories. This use of images, however, remains paradoxical since it negates the representational character of the – seemingly highly mimetic and concrete – images in order to produce a specific presence of the divine word below the horizon of meaning and semantics. “Figural realism” refers to this practice of figuration, as it can be found, among others, in the writings of Henry Suso.

The article demonstrates how art and technique in the patristic discourse of antiquity are interpreted as strategies of making things verfügbar and associating them with the devil: this is shown in two image conceptions of Christian-theological discourse which are embodied in an exemplary way, on the one hand, by the idolater and tyrannical world conqueror Ninus and, on the other, by the dominator of demons, Zoroaster (Zarathustra). A central hypothesis is that those image reflections which are shaped following a Christian model are not determined by the interest in their production: they focus on the receptional level on which art can be effective as the object of a specific perception ad malam or ad bonam partem .

This article is concerned with the narrative strategies of staging the miraculous in St. Erkenwald (c. 1400). The text explores the different degrees to which the divide between life and death remains exempt from the grasp of humans. In so doing, St. Erkenwald responds to complex late medieval debates involving historical, political and theological matters.

The article uses as its starting point the consideration that in religious communication there is either deparadoxation (whereby the understanding of ‘God’ is made more closely determinable and more capable of being connected to an immanent perspective) or a situation whereby paradoxes are developed (to such an extent that they lead to the Unverfügbarkeit of holiness). Furthermore, the question is posed on the strategies used in the liturgical dramas of the Late Middle Ages which create Verfügbarkeit through the debordering of holiness and by making it a daily commonplace. The main hypothesis is that holiness is not represented as being directly verfügbar , but appears rather in ‘intermediate stages’ as organised and staggered intermediaries.

The article discusses the functions and structures of self-sacrifice in relevant literary representations. The central argument is that self-sacrifice – not only with a view to the culture of the Middle Ages – should, in a twofold sense, make verfügbar that which is not verfügbar : on the one hand, that which in current life is not accessible and, on the other, that which aims beyond the frontier of death. The prototype for self-sacrifice is, to be sure, constituted by the Passion of Christ which provides the model of imitatio as a certain path to salvation; however, since selfdestruction is part of this imitatio , it becomes an illegitimate form of disposing of one’s own life, and this is in conflict with the Christian ethic.

The category of the Spur – ‘trace’ – (as well as its epistemological and semiotic status in cultural and literary science) is a vexed question. The objective of this article is to attempt to contribute to the clarification of these problems and to widen reflexions on the sign through the category of the Spur . The starting point of this discussion is the scene of the blood drops in the snow in Wolfram von Eschenbach‘s Parzival . The author discusses the narrative mises-en-scène of Spuren and their integration in complex perceptional and interpretational processes. The central argument is that Wolfram‘s poetological strategy aims at making traces verfügbar , while nevertheless keeping them present in their Unverfügbarkeit .

The basic premise of this article is the hypothesis that questions in Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival are used as a narrative strategy. They produce an area of tension which is dominated by the possibility – and at the same time the impossibility – of having something at one’s disposal. This area of tension not only involves aspects of the content, but also problems of perception and knowledge, as well as structural aspects of narrative technique. In Parzival questions are connected to exploring the environment, with a wish to know, but also a wish to control; however, at the same time they set limits to these endeavours.

The article questions the changes which took place in the perception of time and of the self during an epoch of historical transition. Using the example of early modern prose romances (among others Fortunatus, Hug Schapler, Der Goldfaden ) it is demonstrated that the category of the linearity of (a life-) time acquires a new meaning and that simultaneously the perception of time starts to detach itself from the cyclical rhythm of nature (and from the liturgical year). In this way, the conceptions of the Verfügbarkeit of time and of life are shifted. The article shows the extent to which the prose romance thematised in different ways the relations which are fraught with tension between the Unverfügbarkeit of a lifetime and the cyclical dimensions of time; in addition it also demonstrates the role which is thus played by self-awareness.

Using as a starting point the finding that in linguistics Verfügbarkeit and Unverfügbarkeit have not yet been recognised as categories, the authors point out that strategies have, nevertheless, been investigated in a highly intensive way: these are aimed at the activiation of a certain knowledge in the recepient – thereby making this knowledge verfügbar (or not, as the case may be). In this process an important role is played by agents, which in linguistics are called ‘discourse referents’: the authors follow up the communicative potential of these discourse referents from a language historical-systematic perspective.

Central to these considerations is not only the context, but also the differentiation of action, Widerfahrnis [occurrence] and Unverfügbarkeit as a problem of philosophy. While a subjective moment of experiencing is inherent to Widerfahrnis , this is not true of Unverfügbarkeit ; here a distinction is to be made between that which is contingently given and that which is absolutely given as unverfügbar . The main hypothesis is that the relationship between Verfügbarkeit and Unverfügbarkeit is determined by asymmetry and that, despite their contraposition, the use of both concepts is mainly motivated by the desire for self-determination.

The article addresses the question of whether the category of Unverfügbarkeit disappears in non-metaphysical preconditions or how it can be re-conceptualised in, for example, an amorous relationship. The notion of an all-round Verfügbarkeit in amorous relationships is criticised; the possibilities are discussed of being able to avoid those power differences which, when they appear in different life contexts, are developed and go on to assume an independent existence. As a constructive approach, the concept of a ‘free love’ is introduced into the debate.

Through recourse to Wittgenstein’s concept of language games, the Unverfügbarkeit which determines the relationship of the self to language is outlined; simultaneously, however, the possibility of our disposal of language in language use is gauged. Thus, this article is directed against those positions which deny this possibility. While the ability to dispose of language is in itself not transparent, that which is unverfügbar in our own language is not fully unknown: on the contrary, it shows itself as a game in its manifold usages.