Der Fall des Märe : Rechtsdiskurs und Fallgeschehen bei Heinrich Kaufringer

Kurzfassung/Abstract

The article focuses on the relation of legal discourse and case narration in medieval tales. It discusses three texts by the late medieval writer Heinrich Kaufringer that show differing impacts of legal conceptions and structures on the act of narration. On the one hand Kaufringer’s narrator seems to be much occupied with legal institutions and the way they work. On the other hand, however, he fails in transforming his vision of a well organized, just world into narrative practice. Paradoxically, this seems to be due to his reliance on the structure of trials. While it allows for cases to be negotiated rationally and according to the standards of law, it lacks those values that make the case into a good story in the first place.